The Legend of 'Ash'
by GoldSyrup
Summary: A boy and a girl, both living in the regretful,yet wondrous past; a long distance apart and feelings of emptiness. Little do they know that fate had played them to meet one last time to create new memories together and start anew before everything ends..
1. Chapter 1

**My second story! :D Note: If you haven't read my updated profile, "Adventures throughout Sinnoh" will be put on hold until I regain interest there. My interest is currently directed and shifted to this story. Sorry if I've been gone for a long time. You can expect this chapter to be updated around every week or so since I will be writing a lot for these.**

**Flames about the shipping are not welcomed! Enjoy! And please review! :)**

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><p><strong><span>The Legend of 'Ash'<span> - Chapter 1**

A trainer was atop a high snowy cliff, resting and sitting down at the peak, exhausted from all the harsh training he went through. He wore a red vest with a line of white in the middle, which reached up and spread to his white collars, and baggy blue jeans with red and black sneakers and a white sole. He wore a black half-sleeved undershirt and plain black wristbands. In his hands, he was holding a red hat with a white brim and a white semi-circle with a circular opening in the middle, showing the continued red within. In other words, it was kind of like a half Pokeball design. Noticeably, all his clothes were ragged and dirtied. But he couldn't do anything about that, he was on top of the highest place in the Pokemon world. What else would you expect from there? Nice and tidy? Not a chance at all. The harsh winds blew his jet black hair, swaying it behind his face. His auburn eyes were cold and heartless, just like the harsh snow falling from above.

Sitting beside him was a yellow mouse with a lightning tail and red cheek spots. The species are known as Pikachu's; electric type mouse's who love to cause trouble. They are known to be strong with electricity overflowing their bodies and move at their unbelievable speed, but they don't do too well at the defensive point and when they get hit. But, this particular one was raised with care, kindness and love while enduring harsh training there. It is very well mannered and is considered by many to be the strongest Pikachu to be ever found.

Behind them was the trainer's army of Pokemon, taking a break from the rigorous training they complete. There were quite a bunch of them, more than 30 or so. All of them were different in variety and had special powers of their own. They were all raised with kindness and love but got toughened up by the training and survival in the mountains, just like the mouse and the boy.

The trainer sighed and took a deep breath as he looked below the mountains and far above in the horizon. The weather was horrible there. Snowstorms every day, avalanches happening quite often and endless amount of cold falling snow. No human being could survive there, but this person and all his Pokemon were a definate exception.

He turned his face and looked back at all his exhausted Pokemon. They all looked at him and gave him a smile which meant they were alright from the intense training and they wanted to continue soon again. Their trainer was extremely caring and kind to his Pokemon and he always would looks after them, because they are all he has right now. He turned back and looked at the blue sky and more mountains in the horizon from the one they inhabited. There were only a few clouds in the pastel of sky blue above their heads. As told before, the place he was sitting on was the highest point in the Pokemon world. He moved his hand upwards and put the hat back on top of his messy hair and pulled the brim of his hat downwards, so that his eyes could not be seen in case some challenger comes along. He always liked to hide them, he didn't want the others to look into them, they would only back away in fear. His eyes were not the same as they were before, warm, welcoming and kind. They were now cold, dull and almost impassive. But he couldn't do anything about it. His old eyes just reflected on his past. It's not like he wanted to change them by putting on some contact lenses or stuff like that, in fact a shade of brown is still even visible, but from afar it looked like grey and dull eyes that resemble the harsh snowstorms the trainer went through. It all happened naturally and he couldn't do anything to stop it. One who would look into him would feel his eyes piercing their soul, causing them fear. Fear, that's what he had to overcome within the mountains, training all day and night. Not only fear, but something way more important. In the past, all his friends said there was a mysterious spark within his brown auburn eyes. But he never understood what it actually was. What was so special about them? They're just eyes that you see the world clearly with.

The trainer this time turned his attention to the electric mouse beside him. It was his best friend ever since he got it from the beginning of his journey. The rodent just looked at him with a smile, like all his other Pokemon, since he knew what his trainer endured in his past, they all felt sorry for him and they all stuck together with him while training themselves and helping him train.

"How long has it been, Pikachu?" The trainer asked his loyal mouse. The big smile he once had was now replaced by a straight face, showing no emotion. Everyone in the world who knew or heard of him, feared him and his skill and power. But they didn't only fear him because of that; as mentioned before, they never looked into his eyes. Only he wondered how come his Pokemon didn't budge when they look at him; probably because they have the same eyes as him…

"Pika chu pika-pika pikaka kachu pi." The mouse replied in its native tongue, Pikachu language (I think).

"4 years?" The trainer asked in disbelief. He couldn't believe time had flown so quickly from his grasp. "Are you sure?" Nevertheless, he wanted to ask again, to make sure his trusty mouse was right and telling the truth.

"Pika. Pi kachu kaka pika chupi pi Pikachu." The mouse replied to his disbelieved and confused trainer.

"Feels like more than 4 years. Like almost 12 years…" The trainer said. He was confused between reality and fantasy. But he just soaked it in within his mind. He knew that the electric mouse was definitely telling the truth. He could always rely on and trust the furry rodent, like he had since the beginning. Although they had a rough start, they became the best of friends afterwards and forever.

The two of them were bored, like they were for the past 4 years. Their harsh training was done and they decided to take a break before continuing it again. Training, surviving and battling was their life. When they had nothing to do, they would sit at the peak and look over the horizon while looking back at about their past and why they came here in the first place. They always talked about it and helped each other with their inquiries and thoughts, but the memories just flooded in right into their minds. It was always painful and there was nothing to stop it, except going back to training. True, their bodies were already full of pain from the weather and trying to survive in there. But these memories were not attacking their bodies, but their minds. They would sometimes meditate within the cold weather to try and strengthen, calm and clear their minds. But of course they knew they had to do it for a particular reason. They knew going up and training here wouldn't be fun and exhilarating. It would mean to toughen them up and conduct seriously. True it was more of his choice about his decision, but he knew what he had to do and pick which one to make the right decision. So entirely, it was of his own will. His Pokemon followed him in an order to help him accomplish what he wanted while helping him and themselves.

Sometimes he would get challenged by strong trainers who would climb up the treacherous mountain to test their strengths but he would sweep everyone of them. He never got a challenge, and the ones he already beat were considered top trainers. To entertain himself, he would train to stay in tip-top condition with his Pokemon. But he was always bored, bored like for the past 4 years he was. Sometimes he even looks back and tries to see if he should've regretted the decision he made. But these words would always come to his mind after his confirming his long thoughts and breaking out of his absent-minded state, even if he stuck with the decision or regretted it, 'It's too late to go back now. I need to continue where I started and accomplish myself and my goal. I can't let my Pokemon down'.

But that dilemma he was in, it would all change today…

"You went down again?" The trainer asked in a dull voice. His voice before his decision was filled with enthusiasm and determination, now it was filled with impassiveness and boredom.

"Pika." The mouse replied in the same manner as his trainer. Like his trainer, he had a wonderful life before but he agreed, along with the rest of the Pokemon, with his trainer that 'Some things just needed to change. And for the better indeed'.

"Anyways, enough about that… We need some excitement in our lives beside finding new places to train and travelling the world alone. Are you sure you want to enter with me? I mean, it's going to be pretty rough." The trainer asked his partner in hope for a positive reply as he forced a smile on his face and enthusiasm covered his body.

"Pika!" The mouse exclaimed and smiled, trying his best to show his enthusiasm for his friend.

The trainer patted the mouse on the head and turned back to look at the rest of his fatigue army of Pokemon. "How about you guys? Would you like to enter with me and Pikachu also?" He asked, the smile still plastered on his face. But in a way, it just wasn't the same like before.

The Pokemon all nodded and gave a positive reply in their own Pokemon cries and language as some of them jumped for joy, gave a thumbs up or just gave a positive smirk. Wow, what different personalities and attitudes of all the Pokemon the young trainer owned.

The trainer got up from the ground and picked his Pikachu up and put it on his shoulder, his usual spot. "Then it looks like we have to go back to Pallet Town and register there. Since it's an official tournament, I can also bring and use six of you for a single match. But may I remind you that I have the PokeTransfer to use. And don't worry, I'll switch so everyone gets a fair chance in a battle."

The Pokemon all cheered in delight at their trainer's announcement. If there was one thing they all had in common, it was battling for their trainer. Slowly, the Pokemon began to line up in lines and columns until they formed a square, like it was some kind of training camp and wait for what their trainer had to do next.

"Now listen guys, I'm really proud of you, every single one of you. I never even thought we could achieve this high in a point, but that makes me happy as the trainer and proud because I have you guys as my Pokemon. And to know, I'm sure we're going to be ready for what we have face, and I'm not just talking about trainers and their Pokemon. You guys should know what I mean." The trainer made a speech as he looked to the electric mouse on his shoulder, who just nodded and gave him a thumbs up. "And of course, we trained and survived together by helping and supporting each other at our times of needs. We were faithful and trusting towards each other, and that ended up as part of our training while furthering our bond." The young boy soon added to his speech.

All the Pokemon there had already erupted in cheers at their trainer's encouraging speech, even some of the stubborn ones and the Pikachu on the boy's shoulder. A few of them released a special attack up in the sky, as a will of determination, strength and also a little show-boating, including a certain orange winged dragon with a flame on the tip of its tail, showing off his trademark Flamethrower by flashing it up in the sky and brightening the sky, making it a beautiful display of strength and skill as well as making the area around them a bit warmer (not to mention that the fire on the tip of its tail is always lighted up). Others just had big grins and smirks plastered on their faces. Some of the wiser and mature ones just clapped their hands at the touching and heartfelt speech. Two of them even went completely a bit emotional by letting tears of joy flow down from their eyes, including a certain orange turtle with a black shell and a purple scorpion with bat-like wings. Who knew their trainer could give off a speech and talk like that? They, not even the yellow mouse, expected that from him. But he did change a lot within the years. He definitely matured a lot, something he couldn't do when he became at least 13.

"Now guys, don't get too cocky. We may have trained in here and other places for years, but there could well be someone who already did that also and trained even harder than us." The boy said, trying to calm his Pokemon down from the ruckus of their skill, power and ego.

A few of them bowed their head down in shame while the others just looked at their trainer with eyes of strength, determination, courage and will. All of them went silent immediately. The eyes the stronger and older Pokemon had could be classified as piercing and scary, but the trainer didn't mind it at all since he could also be put in that section at times.

"But don't worry, if we win, I'm allowing you guys to party all night!" The trainer spoke up the 'good news' to his Pokemon.

The silence was easily turned and converted back into cheers in a matter of seconds. Their spirits were lifted up and enlightened just like that. A few of them fist pumped into the air while some were dancing around joyfully. Partying all night is what they loved doing after winning a hard earned battle. The electric mouse couldn't help but flash a smile at the behavior from the rest of the Pokemon. He hadn't seen them so cheery and energetic in years. But he was most surprised by his trainer's actions and attitude. It took a sudden 180˚ degree turn from the cold and lonely boy to the energetic and determined but cool and calm trainer he is acting like now.

The trainer couldn't help but sneak up a grin on his face. He too didn't see his Pokemon this happy in a long time. What, maybe 4 years? He knew that the previous statement would definitely, and without a doubt, encourage his Pokemon to win and battle hard. Inside the joy and excitement he contained made him look completely like a different boy, someone he knew very well of. He hasn't acted like this in years also. After all, Pokemon feel and act like their trainer in a similar manner and even some traits are passed on from the trainer to the Pokemon.

"Alright, now calm down." The trainer hushed quietly as he requested silence from his large army of Pokemon.

The Pokemon immediately made silence and went back to the line they originally formed, which apparently broke during their parade of joy and encouragement, as they're eyes were back and fixated on their trainer. Pikachu was still on the shoulder of the young boy, waiting for what he had yet to add to his speech of encouragement and instructions on what they are going to do there when they arrive.

"Now the Pokemon I see before me, I want them to be different from when we compete. You guys have to be stern, strict and severe. And no friends unless I make a friend with someone, then I guess you can play along with their Pokemon. But don't worry; we'll have our fun times, just not in publicity but in the comfort of our privacy. We don't want to give our identity now, do we?" The trainer added in a bit of a strict and commanding tone at the order he passed to his faithful Pokemon.

The Pokemon just shook their heads in unison and waited for their next instruction from their trainer. Some of them in particular, especially the younger ones, were a bit sad that they can't act like how they did 4 years ago in front of the public or make any friends unless they're trainer makes friends. But the more mature, older and evolved one agreed at their trainer's decision without hesitation or sadness displayed, including Pikachu; who was just a basic form, but a very powerful Pokemon, showing it had matured to be like the older and evolved ones, even though he didn't evolve at all. They knew they had to protect their identities from everyone. And maybe if their trainer would get a bit excited or happy at times from winning or thrashing someone big, he would make friends, and then would they be permitted too as well. But they were completely cool with not having to, as said by the words from their trainer, 'attract unnecessary attention'.

"As for battling, I say that we should play around with our opponents and make them look like of fool of themselves, but they record the results of the battles after the top 64 and air it on Television then. I just suggest we should play around but it's really up to you guys, just don't unleash your full powers, we'll be sued pretty badly for that by our opponents. I'll tell when you need to do that, but for now, just try your hardest to take it easy." The trainer stated as he noticed his Pokemon giving out a short laugh in response to his comments about 'being sued'. He couldn't help but chuckle a bit at what he said. Sue him? As if! No one would even dare…

After the short amount of laughter from the group, the Pokemon nodded again in unison except some menacing smirks returned on a few of their faces.

"And lastly, before I return you guys into your respective Pokeball's, I want you guys to remember this is the first major tournament we entered in 4 years before we disappeared." The trainer said as he bowed his head down.

A few Pokemon just bowed their heads down, including the yellow mouse and many other Pokemon, be it small or basic forms to big and fully evolved forms , as past memories flooded back into them. Most of the Pokemon were there with him at that time while a few others were busy; but still, the ones that couldn't help their trainer with the hardships of life in the beginning of their situation but joined him later on loyally, still had to show sympathy and respect for their trainer's choice and their Pokemon friend's agreement.

"But our past isn't the point right now, especially to dwell about; we have a competition to look forward to. The decision we made was the right one, just look at us now. We improved and made our quality of fighting better and stronger while furthering the bond between us, me as the trainer and you guys as the Pokemon. Now, let's show everyone why we disappeared, why we're coming back for a while and the power of our friendship!" The trainer encouraged his Pokemon as he made a fist pump into the air, signifying his determination and will to his partners.

It didn't take long for the Pokemon to follow their trainer and pump their fists into the air and show the qualities they hold. Sparks even flew from the red spots on the cheek of the electric mouse as he looked full of energy, something he rarely does since he acts so dull and cold like his trainer.

"Now that it's over, I'll go and recall you inside your Pokeball's. I'll sort you guys for the PokeTransfer later on after we reach Pallet." The trainer stated his intentions and his Pokemon just nodded in reply.

He soon walked and moved over to a nearby winter tree, the snow falling down hard on the tree and the strong breeze made it sway in the wind. He then knelt down on one foot and grabbed a heavy yellow backpack and then back up to his feet. It was hard to move in the snow blanket with his feet dragging him, but he got used to it over the years. He dragged the backpack in the snow along with his feet as he went over towards his Pokemon. He knelt down on one foot again and brought out a bunch of red and white spheres, which are known as Pokeball's, and started recalling his army of Pokemon within them as a red energy beam came from the Pokeball, hit the Pokemon and sucked it back in the sphere of red and white.

Pikachu cooed and rubbed his cheeks against his trainer's cheek, earning himself a pat on his head and a scratch behind his ear.

Slowly by slowly, all the Pokemon got withdrew into their respective Pokeball's until there was only the same show-boating orange dragon with wings and a tail that was always lit on by a flame, standing before the trainer. Its eyes were considered menacing, flames lit in them if it got excited or just dull grey when it was bored. It was quite larger than the average species of the Pokemon. The trainer decided that he would need of the dragon's assistance to fly so he let him stay outside. Beside the big yellow backpack was a brown cloth like item which was tossed carelessly on the ground. The boy turned his direction back to the tree, bent down and picked it up and started to wear it from his back to his front. When he had completely put it on, it seemed like a dark brown trench coat which went down to his knees. Like all his other clothes, the coat was ragged as well with a few tears and scratches but noticeably, put in much more care than all the other clothes he wore.

He put all his Pokeball's back into his backpack, carried it onto his back and turned to head towards the mighty orange dragon with his little mouse still on his shoulder. The backpack was quite heavy, but he didn't mind since he went through a lot worse.

The only Pokeball that was different from the others was one with a lightning bolt mark above the center. And incidentally, the yellow mouse hated being in a Pokeball and he would always like to roam around with his trainer, standing on top of his shoulder. The unique lightning marked Pokeball belonged to the trainer's trusty companion, Pikachu.

The dragon lowered his long orange neck so that the trainer could climb on his back as he flapped and prepared his wings for soon-to-be, a takeoff.

The trainer carefully climbed over on the dragon's back and placed himself behind the neck and held onto his trusted dragon tightly. Pikachu held on to his trainer tightly, since he knew of the dragon's unimaginable speed, and if he didn't, he could get blown away in the strong winds. The trainer, already knowing of the speed of his dragon, grabbed on to his red hat with his other hand due to not wanting it to be blown away in the wind.

"Alright Charizard, take us back to Pallet Town." The trainer commanded as his dragon took speed and flapped his wings again and started racing with his feet and before they knew it, they were up in the air and holding tight onto the dragon's body.

The dragon nodded as it kept on flying at mach speed that it broke the sound barrier already. The dragon left a few dazed and confused Swellow's and Staraptor's at its wake, amazed by the speed of the flying menace.

After getting settled down, the trainer and mouse loosed their grip and looked onto the sky above the horizon. They flew so high up that people couldn't notice there was a trainer with a Charizard above the skies, flying.

"Pika, pikachu pika chu. Pi pika kachu chupi pi?" The mouse asked as he climbed himself down from his trainer's shoulder and on top of Charizard's back.

"Don't worry. It's not like there were many challengers to begin with. And with that, eventually they would find out who I am, and not just Red. So we need a nickname for the competition." The trainer said as he put his mind onto thinking of a good nickname that wouldn't give his real identity away.

However, his mouse was confused. What did he mean by that? "Pikachu pikaka kachu pi? Pikachu pika-pika kaka pika chupi chu?" The mouse asked in confusion.

The trainer looked at his mouse with an odd look before answering its question. "I know Red is the name I live by now. But I need another nickname so they won't find out it's the legendary trainer." Red, or so his nickname, paused for a while and tried to think on how to continue his sentence. "But they probably will find out by the way I battle." Red added with a confident smirk.

The mouse followed his actions and gave a smirk on his own. Even the flying Charizard could be seen with a faint smirking.

"They can find out Red whenever they want, but they cannot find out anything deeper than the legendary trainer. They cannot find out who's behind Red… until it's time… time for what we've really trained for." Red said as he looked down at his little yellow mouse.

Pikachu just nodded its head in reply before heading off cautiously towards Charizard's neck, sitting on it and conversing with the dragon. They exchanged a few stories and jokes and laughed for a while, amusement flowing through within them in a long time.

Red just watched the duo laughing and smiling, and put up a grin. Normally the lives of his Pokemon were as dull and boring as the life of his own. But knowing of the news they got a few days ago, their spirits were lifted up into the air quite high. 'They cannot find out who I really am until then...' Red thought up as he turned his gaze from the laughing duo to underneath them.

They were flying and crossing over to Kanto. The mountain that he was residing in was what separated Kanto and Johto, it was the borderline for the two regions. Red estimated that at the speed his Charizard was travelling at, they would soon reach Pallet Town in roughly about 5 more minutes.

He had really grown more intelligent over the years he trained on the mountain while enduring and surviving the bad weather and wild Pokemon there. Often, he would climb down from mountain and visit the world with his Pokemon for some while as a reward for their hard work in training and to save them and himself from boredom. He would also go to other harsh places like the one he resided on as a change of their pace in training. They would stay there for a couple of days before going back to where they lived. Of course, no one could know his identity as the trainer that resided at a certain mountain's peak. But he always needed to keep his team and himself in top shape. Many trainers would scale the peak and fight him to test their strengths but no one even came close to defeating him. His Pokemon were living a life they wouldn't expect and normally like to live, but they promised to stay by their trainer's side, no matter what happens and even after what happened four years ago…

"First we need to pay mom a visit before we go to Professor Oak's. I wanna see how the old geezer is doing." Red announced to Pikachu and Charizard, who both just nodded simultaneously in reply.

'I wonder if I'll find a challenge there. Surely there is the Elite Four and the Champion, but they aren't too hard to beat.' Red thought to himself again as he could slowly see Pewter City over the horizon becoming more and more clear to the trainer and his Charizard and Pikachu.

Only one word came into Red as many memories flashed into his mind all at once. 'Brock…' He shook his head from that name and focused on the flying Pokemon. Charizard wasn't even breaking a sweat or tired at all, in fact, it looked like he was enjoying it, feeling the air resistance and the wind coming against them at their flying mach speed. Pikachu was as usual enjoying it also as he stretched out his body and arms and felt the air resistance coming from the wind and to his body. Red's jet black hair was also flowing and swaying in the wind behind his face.

Charizard slowed down the speed a bit since they were now flying over the Kanto region and towards Petwer City. Red and Pikachu had to get used to Charizard's incredible speed at first by doing a few test flights before they could fly safely and surely on top of him.

Of course, Red was invited to a tournament by an old friend. The trainer was bewildered at how the person managed to find him and know of his current status, since he was completely isolated from society. Sure everyone knew of Red, but that person knew he wasn't just Red. He then took it over with his Pokemon a few times if they wanted to join with him or not and they all cheered and nodded in reply as explained in the previous scene.

He would hope that he could find a challenge in the tournament, someone who can actually get past his fourth Pokemon. If only there was someone who was gifted as he was in Pokemon battles, some magical trainer who would give him a tough time…

Flashing memories came into his mind as he though back to the days when he was a carefree trainer who entered Leagues and Competitions and wanted nothing more than to become the best trainer their ever was. And now, since he was proclaimed as a 'Legend' by many, he assumed himself that he was one of the best out there. But his jolly and happy-go-lucky attitude had disappeared and faded away from him over the years of his harsh training. He looks down on his former self as weak and idiotic, not focusing on the main subject and always getting too cocky and arrogant so quickly. The memories of what happened that day still haunts him like a ghost, but he knew that the friends he had from before must have been in a worse condition, especially a certain girl he used to like…

Now the girl, the last time he saw her, he considered her a witch. But he sensed that all his friends were in great sorrow after he left, even that special girl. Special? So does our legendary trainer have feelings for this girl? Well, had… He doesn't know if he still does, but they all come in to his mind often, especially the girl. All he could say now was she was definitely different from the others. But the guilt came to him a few days after he left. He realized that the reason she was acting like she was at that time was because she was heartbroken that he would just leave them. As much as he wanted to go back to them immediately and apologize his heart out, he knew he couldn't. He needed to continue on and accomplish what they disappeared for. And, he knew she had her heart set on another boy and not him... But Red wasn't one to hold grudges; he just ignored them and let them be. The fact that she didn't like him bothered him and made him a bit jealous for some while but after years of training and controlling his emotions and feelings, he took it in and got over it. He didn't just train his Pokemon and himself. He knew the boy she loved was the right person for her and definitely not him, he was out-matched and he thinks he doesn't deserve someone like her. He didn't want his emotions to take control over him and interrupt and interfere in their relationship. Therefore, he left for her sake too. He knew it was best for her.

He just shook his head and broke away from his thoughts. 'No, now's not the time to be thinking about my past. I need to get ready for the competition.' Red thought as he saw Pikachu sit silently on top of Charizard while the latter just flew in the direction he was told, both their eyes fixated upon the sun over the horizon as they could see Viridian City get close. He hadn't noticed that they had already past Pewter City and were now travelling over Viridian Forest. He had past Brock… He didn't even get to have a good look over the Gym in Pewter. He couldn't look back to see it because they were too far away from the Gym.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it Pikachu?" The legendary trainer sighed with a small frown visible.

"Pika." The mouse turned to his trainer and nodded as a sad smile crept across his face. This was the first town they travelled to after beginning their Pokemon journey together. The first ever town they ventured through and had so much trouble getting to Pewter from here.

"But we can't think about our past now, we need to prepare for our entry in the competition." Red said as he straightened up and commanded his Pokemon to do so too.

"Pika!" Pikachu said in delight, relieved that the topic was changed. Although, it didn't completely leave his mind. He was just distracted by his trainer's determination and command.

"Remember guys, as I told you before, do not use your full strength and try to play around while battling the other trainer's Pokemon. We want them to think we're clowns and then later, we'll surprise them. But, if you get pushed into a corner, which I doubt will happen, you know what to do." Red announced as he smirked once more.

The two Pokemon nodded in reply at their trainer's announcement. They knew exactly what he wanted to do and they couldn't help but feel pity for whoever they were going to face there. Smirks reappeared on all three of their faces, but one thing came into mind for the three of them, 'I can't wait to get to this competition and sweep the floor'.

"But let's not get carried away and underestimate our opponents, there might be some stronger than me and of course there are the Elite Four and the Champion of a region." Red declared and tried to prevent his Pikachu and Charizard from getting too cocky and overconfident like before. "So, did you guys pick out a nickname I can use? A really foolish one?" Red asked his two Pokemon companions.

Charizard and Pikachu shook their heads at the question, too busy with laughing at each other's jokes and spending the time by flying it around them that they couldn't think of a name to use in the tournament for their trainer.

The legendary trainer just sighed, he need to think of something fast by the time they get to Professor Oak's for registration while trying to avoid drifting back to his past and prevent the memories from flooding his mind. Well, it was too late.

Fortunately, they could see Pallet Town straight ahead. The calm and small town surrounded by lush green grasses and wild flowers swaying because of the wind. The people were roaming the clean streets quietly and some were going into shops there. The fresh and clean breeze inhabiting the peaceful town, keeping the town's people healthy and fresh. No sign of pollution anywhere. There wasn't much in Pallet, but it was enough to enjoy and live.

The calm and serene breeze swept through the trainer's hair and as it flowed behind him. It was definitely different from the harsh and strong winds that blew on top of the mountain. It's been a long time since he came back here and he couldn't wait to see his caring and loving mother again.

Pikachu turned his head back to Red, went back towards the trainer, jumped onto his lap and held tight onto him tightly as they were soon going to be roaming Pallet Town. Red responded by clutching him tightly with one of his arms and the other one around Charizard's back, holding him tightly so he or Pikachu wouldn't get flown off from Charizard. The arm he was clutching Pikachu tightly with was also occupied by the red hat gripped on tightly to his arm. Red just hoped he wouldn't ruin it somehow by the pressure applied from his hand and fingers to his precious hat.

But Pikachu was suffocating and desperate for air. How tight did Red even hold him? In the blink of an eye, while Charizard was still on the route to landing himself, he jumped off from Red and scurried across his shoulder to dive into his huge backpack after opening the chain and closing it again with the only things being in it were the Pokeballs of his friends and himself. Red didn't seem to mind much since he knew Pikachu wouldn't fall off from there and he thought about how tightly exactly he did hold the yellow mouse. But unbeknownst of him, Charizard and Pikachu himself, the mouse just put his tiny little yellow foot down on top of a Pokeball's center button and caused something really bad to happen that may have resulted in an M rating for this chapter due to character death.

"Tor!" A loud sound was heard from the trainer's backpack. Red and Charizard just looked in confusion but Pikachu was hesitating for what he just had done. He immediately retracted his tiny foot and leapt out of Red's bag after opening the chain and held onto the trainer tightly while burying his little body and face into the chest of the trainer , again. He didn't care how tightly Red would hold him this time; they were in for the surprise of their lives, and Pikachu wanted to be prepared dearly.

Red just ignored the repeated actions of his trusty yellow mouse (although with a bit more drama this time around). His mind was on what caused the voice and what exactly the rodent did, but soon he could feel the weight on his backpack suddenly multiply times 10 as he was struggling and trying to not fall over from Charizard's back. The orange dragon soon halted the speed they were flying at and felt the pressure of weight forcing him downwards to the ground. It was getting really heavy as Charizard was now struggling to fly, even maintain its altitude at the current state.

"Pikachu! What did you do?" Red shouted in anger and demand while holding tightly onto Charizard's back and tried so hard not to fall over. No, he didn't want to die today. He understood everyone had to die someday but just not today in his time. He had to do and complete many things before he would rest in peace, and he didn't want those to come to a stop just because of what his yellow mouse did, who he was very angry at for.

The flame Pokemon was struggling to move tried to land immediately with all its strength by spreading its wings wide for balance before they would tumble down into the meadow of Pallet.

"Pika chupi pi! Pika chu Pikachu chupi Pika pi!" The yellow mouse, whose face was directly pushed against his trainer's red vest, cried out in desperation frantically in a muffled voice.

"You just released Torterra from his Pokeball accidentally, didn't you?" The trainer inquired and sighed as he let one of his hands free to grab onto the mouse tightly for crash landing. But the one he let free was the one that had the hat in his palm! "Errgh… The hat!" Red cried out as he looked at the red hat falling swaying back and forth gently on the sky and on the clouds as it slowly fell to the ground full of grass and flowers with a soft thud after a few seconds.

Red's backpack began to glow white. Even though it was a red colored one, the shining bright light flashed on and off as the growing figure slowly crawled out of the backpack and onto the back of a struggling Charizard until it stopped shimmering in a white light as the form of the figure got bigger and bigger. Now, in place of a white and shiny light was soon revealed to be a giant green and massive earth turtle with a huge tree growing from its back.

At that moment, Charizard couldn't take it anymore. The full pressure from the turtle on his back got him good. His head started spinning and his back started aching as he felt the tremendous weight of the turtle. He started getting dizzy as he tumbled within the air and went down crashing towards the ground, head first downwards.

The trainer and mouse had a look of horror on their faces as the former held onto the dragon very tightly for the preparation of the crash landing that Charizard even uttered a cry of pain slightly.

The turtle was just confused. Why would his trainer call him out in the sky and why was he even supposed to be here? But before any of the questions could be answered, he felt the surface from the back of the dragon turn into nothing. The turtle gulped and looked down to see that he was crashing down along and beside Charizard into the ground, head first also!

Red had to act quickly. He knew that if he didn't command anything now, the four may as well be perish or if lucky, survive but with major injuries. He promised himself he couldn't die and he had to keep up on his promise. The yellow mouse was still in the position from before, into the comfort of his trainer's arm as they tightly held each other.

"Charizard, use Flamethrower to ease the landing and try to land with your feet or your backside! Pikachu, hold on to me for your life! Torterra, use your vines- Wait, you don't have vines! Damn it! Try and land on your four feet with the aid of Frenzy Plant!" The trainer quickly commanded his dear friends in a last ditch effort to save them and himself from entering the doors of the afterlife.

Pikachu was still in the same position as it clutched his trainer very tightly with his paws and closed his eyes. Red did the same by closing his eyes and clutching one of his arms around Pikachu while the other held Charizard tightly.

Charizard shrugged and shook his head in realization as he regained control, but not enough because they were still heading for the ground. How high up were they even? Charizard closed his eyes gently and a few seconds later, opened them calmly and burst out a concentrated light of massive flames that scorched the ground and made the air and surroundings warmer.

Torterra's body was suddenly outlined in a light green color after hearing his trainer's order as it closed his eyes to focus. The attack he was about to unleash was very powerful and needed an uncontrollably high amount of focus and concentration. When he opened them, giant roots with spikes from below five hundred feet burst out and grew quickly from the ground, causing them to falter and break as it scaled the heights until it made some sort of pillar to which a frame of the other roots are supported in.

Torterra was able to manage and bounce on top of the frame covered with roots safely. Sure he did get hurt by the spikes, but that was definitely better than opening the gate to the next life as the massive continent Pokemon just sighed in relief and shrieked in pain. It turned his gaze to the incoming dragon that was trying his best to land on his feet and the two passengers on his back.

"Rawwwrrr!" The dragon shouted as he somehow managed to take control and turn his body so he could perfect a landing while still having a good two hundred feet left before surface level. Red's command on Charizard to shoot out flames was not to soften and ease up the landing, but to make the dragon focus and concentrate to regain control over his body. 'What a genius he is' must be what the dragon was thinking or considering.

Charizard slowed its speed now as it prepared to land properly on the meadow. Some of the flowers and tall grass were melted and burned on the surface. It began to descend towards the ground as its wings were spread once again and legs in position.

Fortunately and luckily, Charizard managed to perform a perfect landing by skillfully lowering its feet down on the ground, spreading it wings wide and burst out a Flamethrower from its mouth for the finishing touch, adding a nice special effect as well as showing off his trademark Flamethrower with the energy it had, which was quite a lot even after almost crash landing by an accidental attempt to carry a 310kg land turtle.

Red and Pikachu sighed in relief as they let go of each other and Charizard and carefully got down from the dragon and onto the tall and lush grass. They had to thank Arceus dearly for letting them live one more day in this world.

"Alright, good job Charizard. You managed to follow my orders perfectly and perform them without hesitation." The trainer thanked it by nudging the body of the orange dragon with his elbow, earning a scorching hot Flamethrower in response. It wasn't considered in an angered way, but rather its way of showing affection towards its trainer.

"Pika pika-chupi pikaka-chu pika pikachu chu pi!" The mouse added with a thumbs up to the dragon.

The dragon gave another Flamethrower; this time to the mouse, who just became scorched and burned up quite quickly. But this time it was one of frustration and anger towards the mouse for letting the turtle slip under and over them.

"Pikachu pika chupi pika pi…" The mouse scratched the back of his head in embarrassment as it apologized in its own language to both his trainer and his friend.

"Yeah yeah… But next time, you're staying with me. Just tell me when I hold you too tight. It isn't that hard to say it." The trainer replied to the mouse, who just sighed in relief.

"Rawwwrr!" The dragon replied by turning his back towards them while crossing his arms and firing off a trademark Flamethrower at the sky.

"Charizard, you should really cut it out with the show-boating in front of us. We've already seen you show off a lot of times. Just do it in front of other people to show them how 'cool' you are. Which reminds me…" Red explained as he turned his gaze behind them to see a green turtle still high up in the roots. "Can you Flamethrower those roots to lower Torterra down enough to jump?" The trainer turned again to face the back of the dragon.

Charizard could be seen slightly nodding as it turned towards the direction of the roots and began walking slowly by making 'thump' noises near the place while Red and Pikachu just got out of the direction as they watched from behind.

"Pika chu pika Pikachu chupi pikaka kachu pi." The mouse decided to break their short silence and kill the time while they watched as he turned his upwards to meet the trainer's face.

"Pikachu I've been telling you this for years. There isn't any ketchup in the bag! Just Pokeball's!" Red proclaimed looking down, annoyed at the mouse's repeated question.

"Pikaa…" The mouse sighed sadly in disappointment of being reminded of the answer. "Pika chupi pi kachu pi kachu pikachu." The mouse said with his head down in shame.

"Nah, I'm not going to look for it now. Children or wild Pokemon could have taken it by now. It was one of my favorite hats but, meh, I needed a change of clothes anyways." The young boy said as he pointed at his dirty and ragged clothes. And, for a split second back in the heat of the situation; he thought his trench coat would fly off also along with his hat. His trench coat was probably the only thing that made him look out of character in appearance from his former self.

Before the two could inquire or answer any more questions, they were interrupted by the sound of cackling fire bursting out. They immediately turned to see the roots that grew under the ground melt and wither away slowly by the work of the dragon as the turtle could be seen with a smile on its face. Some of the flowers and tall grass surrounding the vines started to fade away into cinder.

"Alright! Good work, keep it up Charizard." The trainer said to the dragon-in-work.

"Pika!" The mouse cheered in encouragement.

The roots could be seen melting even more at the blaze of the scorched Flamethrower as Torterra walked towards the end of the frame of the melting vines and made a huge leap in the air. After Charizard's work was done; he immediately flew up quickly with his wings, knowing full well what would happen next.

Red and Pikachu were either oblivious to the fact or was just avoiding the reason as they watched the turtle slowly descend on the ground due to gravitational pull.

When the feet of Torterra hit the ground hard, it began to shake violently, hunks of rock being flown around the meadow. Red and Pikachu tried their best to keep their balance and not tip over at the Earthquake. Charizard was just watching from above the sky, smirking at the event. However, it didn't take too long for the Earthquake attack to calm down and finally concede.

"Ow, you could have warned us you know!" The trainer said as he put his hand on top of his head due to the dizziness.

"Pika…" The mouse followed his trainer's action as swirly black eyes appeared in place of his normal black beady eyes.

Charizard soon landed on the now-broken ground carefully as he laughed at what Red and Pikachu experienced. Torterra didn't take much time to join in with the laughter.

Red just ignored their insults and put the bag that he was carrying with him all this time, down on the ground and reached for some Pokeballs. He soon stood back up with two Pokeballs in both of his hands as he pointed both of them to Charizard and Torterra.

"Alright, now. Torterra, you didn't do anything on purpose. And I have to say good work for handing over your focus to perform Frenzy Plant rather quickly. Take a rest." Red said as he pointed one of the Pokeballs towards Torterra, making the sphere emit a red light of energy that hit the turtle and sucked it back inside. "Charizard, you had a very tough time today and I would like to say good work for putting concentration on your mind and thank you for saving our lives, again. Take a well deserved rest."

The dragon just replied with a scorching hot Flamethrower at them, as a sign of its way of showing affection, before being recalled into its own Pokeball by Red and stored onto the heavy yellow backpack.

The trainer turned his gaze to the yellow mouse beneath him, who was now fiddling with his fingers nervously.

"Alright Pikachu, I'm not going to get mad on you or anything like that; in fact, I never get angry or yell at my Pokemon at all, especially you. But I want you to be more careful next time around. I think this was the 10th time that we almost entered the gates of the afterlife this year around. So I dearly request you to be more careful from now on. Anything could happen…" Red explained to the mouse.

"Pika chu…" The mouse bowed his head down in shame at what he had just done.

"But let's forget that now. We have a competition up soon and we need to get ready. Come on, I think mom still has some ketchup in the fridge." Red tried to convince Pikachu as he flashed a smile at him.

"Pika!" Pikachu happily nodded and climbed on top of Red's shoulder, its usual spot. He rubbed his cheek against his trainer with his own in affection and with that, they turned their eyes towards the urban area of Pallet Town and started walking slowly in that direction.

"I bet mom'll be surprised to see us." Red said to his faithful mouse on his shoulder.

"Pika pika!" The mouse energetically replied by nodding his head.

"1 year and still the same old Pallet." Red stated as he looked from left to right and checked out the town's natural and beautiful scenery before getting into the more crowded part of town.

Pikachu nodded at Red's statement. They hadn't been to Pallet Town in over a year's time. Pallet Town never changed; it was always the peaceful and calm town that it was from the beginning. The town's people were extremely friendly and welcoming to even strangers. It was considered as the perfect place to start your own Pokemon journey. The town was never that famous, the only thing people could brag about here was that the famous Professor Samuel Oak resides here and that a famous and special Pokemon trainer used to live here and this was where the person started their own Pokemon journey.

"Brings back all those memories…" Red sighed with disappointment and sorrow detectable in his voice.

"Pika…" The electric mouse sighed also.

Normally, talking about old memories would be joyful and full of enjoyment. But this was not the case for Red. That would be four years ago, not at the present. Would it still be the same joyful moments recalling about your good times you had years ago, probably not after what Red and Pikachu had to do in order to move on.

"But we should really get going." Red turned backwards and pointed out to the sun behind them.

Pikachu looked at the glaring and bright sun while shielding his eyes with one of his arms over his eyes. It was bright and shining, casting its rays on the field full of flower and grass. There were a still couple of good hours left before the sun sets and moon rises.

"Mom will probably tell us to stay the night, but the tournament starts day after tomorrow so I want to head there today." Red pointed out as he turned back to the direction they were going to.

"Pika." Pikachu nodded its head in agreement.

The two then walked together slowly over to their destination as they passed over the field full of flowers and to the small and humble houses ahead of them. The grasses were neatly trimmed there, unlike the meadow they landed on, and a few flowers and small trees were planted. It was more like considered as a country side as there were mostly fields and free space, but the town had a little sociality mixed with it as there were many houses and quite some shops, restaurants and other convenient places.

Red and Pikachu were quiet during their whole journey as they walked through the town. A few people stole glances and looks at the man, some backed away in fear of realization, some didn't even recognize him and some were even left into the point of confusion. Their minds all went to this question, 'Wasn't there a trainer with a Pikachu on his shoulder, who started their journey here in Pallet?'

Red and Pikachu just ignored them and continued to walk towards them. There were a few girls who had dreamy looks on the young trainer and some were even drooling and daydreaming! He just sighed, young girls these days…

They walked and walked through the modern Pallet until they stopped when they reached a nice silver painted double story house with a red roof. Surrounding the house was a nice garden with trimmed leaves and a ground dug up and filled with soil, to harvest vegetables and fruits. Beside the house was a blue mailbox and white fences, which surrounded the house and the garden.

Red walked over to the blue mailbox and opened it gently, he checked inside. No mail. He sighed deeply and closed it and continued walking over to the passage of the house's door.

"Is it good to be home!" He screamed slightly in excitement. Excitement, that was something he rarely felt for the past few years. The only recent excitement he had was that he was entering a tough competition in hopes of finding a tough trainer while making fools out of other trainers. He couldn't believe how excited he was when he was a young 10 year old trainer, always looking forward to the next Gym Battle and working thoroughly on training his Pokemon. He even had all of that until he was 15! But that all changed soon enough after he came to a sudden point of realization…

He walked over to the nice set of wooden stairs and into the wooden porch. He then proceeded to ring the bell as he waited for someone to answer it. Mom. Maybe Mimey also. Pikachu could also be seen with joy, coming back to visit his trainer's house, or also, his house. Red continued to ring the bell over and over again, even if his mother was thinking, who would be so persistent? It took a few more seconds and bell ringing before approaching footsteps could be heard coming to the door.

"Who is it?" A feminine voice asked from the other side of the door. Fortunately, there wasn't any peephole in the door for the lady to view through.

"Heh, a Ghastly." Red replied jokingly while Pikachu his best not to burst out and fall down on the floor, laughing.

"Ok, whoever you are, I warn you; I have a Pokemon and I'm not afraid to beat you up with it!" The now angry feminine voice from the other side of the door exclaimed.

Red sighed in defeat, the joke was over. Pikachu maintain himself and didn't manage to utter a cry, even though inside, he would laugh his head off. "Geez, relax mom, it's me. Now can you please let me in?" The trainer asked nicely this time.

There was a moment of silence for a few seconds before Red could hear the lock undone very quickly. The door then swung open, barely hitting Red and Pikachu, and revealed…

The next thing Red and Pikachu could remember was being embraced in the, possibly, tightest hug ever as they struggled to breathe for air. He was sure that he could feel unconsciousness taking over him slowly. The hug was so tight that he couldn't beg for mercy by simply speaking up. He just wondered how Pikachu was doing at their current state. He just closed his eyes and waited for what would happen next, prepared for anything but not this situation.

Meanwhile…

Somewhere far away from the mysterious and probably unconscious Red, was a young girl; lying down on her big bed, head down on her pillow as she held a picture above her and looked into it deeply in her big room.

The walls were painted a light pink and the bed was located at the far upper left in the room. The single bed was spread with a light sheet of white and pink hearts. Beside her bed was a side table which was covered in a white cloth and had a green fanny pack on top and a few pictures of herself and a few of her friends. There was one with a heart shaped frame and a picture of a young boy with a red hat and a Pikachu on his shoulder, which was the closest to her single sized bed. There were white silk curtains covering the window next to her side table. Beside the window was a large closet. Across the bed was a nice desk with a chair, containing a few golden trophies, big and small. There was a TV set beside the desk also. Above the TV and indented within the wall were a few glasses cases and inside of them were what seemed to be, ribbons with gold centerpieces. There was also a door across from the window.

The young girl put down the picture beside her and then she slid across her bed, sat up at the edge and went to her side table. She sat up and brought her green fanny pack to her lap as she pulled the zipper to open it and searched for something inside of it. Searching, searching, searching, found it. After a while of her hands squirming inside the pack, she pulled out something, but her fist was clenched shut with the item inside of it. She gently closed the zipper of the fanny pack with her other hand and put it back down on her side table as she moved herself back to where she was and plopped down into the bed with the back of her head down in the pillow again. She put her hand down and looked for the picture, searching with her hand. When she found it, she positioned it above her with her arm straight up as she looked into it. In the process, she dropped the item from her hand and it fell down beside her in the bed, but she didn't seem to take notice, she was too busy with focusing and gazing upon the picture in front of her.

In the picture was her younger self next to a young boy. Incidentally, this boy also had a red hat and a Pikachu on his shoulder. She was wearing a half-sleeved red shirt with a white miniskirt and black shorts. Her sneakers were red, black and had a little bit of yellow. Her hands were covered with a white glove that went from her wrist to her fingers and from then was a black wristband that was connected with the gloves, and her fingertips were coated black as well. Her brown hair fell down neatly down her cheeks from both sides as her sapphire blue eyes shined in the sun and her face was plastered with a timid smile, showing her shyness. And of course, she was wearing her trademark red bandana with a white Pokeball design on her head. Beside her was a young boy with a blue sweatshirt, having the half of a white Pokeball for design on the bottom. He was also wearing a black undershirt with half sleeves. His hands were in black gloves with connected green wristbands or so, his fingers were open and free, unlike the girl's. He wore baggy blue jeans and red and black sneakers. His face was flashed with a goofy grin, which was definitely bigger than the girl's one, as warmth and compassion enlightened his auburn eyes. His messy jet black hair was, well, messy and not brushed… Spikes of hair shooting out in all directions, but it was enough to be considered decent. Above his hair was a red hat with a black opening from the back and inside was a green, half a Pokeball design. The two were standing really close, and I mean really close, closer than normal friends should be; but then again, did they look like normal friends? They were best friends, possibly even more than friendship could be felt by the two. The boy's arm was around the girl's waist as she was pulled closer over to him and their shoulders and bodies touched. The girl had her arm around the boy's shoulder as they posed, acting like models but in a carefree way. With their free hands, they made a peace symbol on their opposites. A Pikachu was standing on both of their shoulders, since it was already touching each other's and gave a peace symbol of its own with its chubby little yellow paws as he gave off a normal smile. It was looking like, well, how normal Pikachu's look like; nothing special except its battling skills and its heart and bond of friendship. They were flashing (except Pikachu), to say, the most brightest and cheesiest of grins. But what was most visible on the girl and boy's faces were not the huge goofy grin or the shy cheeky smile, but their cheeks turning red. The boy had a red blush as he looked at the camera, it seemed as if he was desperately trying to prevent himself from turning even deeper into a shade of red, but it was still very visible. The girl however, was crimson already. Her blush was as red as a tomato and that made her face turn like that, due to their closeness. No one, even a certain young and very knowledgeable boy having lost his glasses unknowingly could miss the girl's intense blushing. Her bandana and shirt couldn't keep up with the red even! That was probably her possible reason of being shy around him while he was holding her, but alas; the boy probably doesn't notice it due to his density. But why is he blushing then? But still, the scenario behind them was perfect, they were on a grassy meadow with lots of flowers and tall grass as the winds were blowing against them and the sun was shining behind them, but the picture was captured perfectly. Their hairs were swaying behind and beside their faces with the wind slightly. If one were to look close enough, the Pikachu could be seen with a very mischievous smile, almost as if taunting the two best friends for the red on their faces as well as their closeness.

The girl gave off a big sigh before taking a look at the picture, her fingers running gently through the image of the young boy and her younger self. She looked at the picture once more before sighing deeply and putting it down beside her in the bed. She then put both her arms down on the bed and began searching for her fallen item with one of her hands.

It didn't take long for her to find what she was looking for as she grappled it and clenched it shut in her fist again. By far, it could be deciphered as something quite small. She held up the arm she had the item in above her head as she finally opened her fingers slowly, revealing her fair palm skin and…

Half a ribbon…

It had a gold centerpiece, as usual with all the other ribbons in her room, and pink and white ribbons emerging from the centerpiece. This was the only half ribbon she seemingly had; it wouldn't work in an entry for a Grand Festival. But this wasn't just a ribbon she won in a Pokemon Contest, it was a ribbon she won with a special someone.

The girl sighed deeply again as she looked at her reflection within the centerpiece as memories of how she won the ribbon flooded back into her mind. She couldn't believe what had happened within the years. Back then, it all seemed like it was a fairytale, but that's completely different from now.

"Why? You were the strongest one I knew." She whispered lightly to no one in particular, her gaze from the ribbon never broke.

Her thoughts were all interrupted by a familiar noise, a noise which annoyed her a lot when she wanted time alone to recall about her wonderful past with that special someone. A noise she didn't like at all.

She dropped the ribbon on the bed again as she sat up from the bed to face the door. "Come in." She sighed and said in a faint voice, which, hopefully could be heard by the person or persons from the other side of her door.

Hadn't she made it clear with her family to not bother her when she wanted to be alone? Her parents would always tell her to come down for dinner, or whatever the time of the day was for the appropriate meal, but it wasn't time for dinner yet. Then who would bother her? Boy, if it was her little brother, would she beat him up badly to a pulp.

The door swung open lightly and in front of the girl stood two silhouette figures as they looked at the girl. The light in the hallway from which they entered from weren't on, so only shadows of them could be seen. But by the light in the girl's room, their faces were pretty much visible. As the girl slowly turned her head to look at who disturbed her, the two figures had smiles on their faces, one with a really big one and the other with a faint and light one. When her eyes were fixated upon the people and the open door beside them, she could immediately recognize the two, very familiar faces as she motioned for them to come in with her hands lightly.

The two figures quietly walked across her room and over to her and sat down on the bed beside her from both sides as they looked at her with a serious expression, their smiles now slowly fading away from their faces.

**To be continued...**

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><p><strong>Well did you like it? Please review on your opinion and feel free to point out my mistakes and errors. Good reviews make an author feel that much better so I would appreciate it if you find the time to drop one here since I worked really hard on this. It should be a little more than a week before I update another chapter, so until then...<strong>

**Drink syrup! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well took a bit more than a week to update, but it's finally here. Looks like my span of updating chapters for this story will be around 1-2 weeks since I write a lot while still having other school stuff to do. Thanks to everyone for reviewing my previous chapter and I hope you review this one also :)**

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><p><strong><span>The Legend of 'Ash' - Chapter 2<span>**

"Would you like some tea, honey; along with the biscuits?" A feminine voice could be heard from the background as we shift to our scene. It was a very kind and soft voice.

"If it's not a problem, mom. Thanks." The voice of a young boy cracked as he tried to sound as sincere and caring as possible. He had gotten so used to seclusion that his voice became cold and without emotion. His mother didn't like his new 'persona' very much so he tried his best to sound nice for her.

Our scene soon shifts over as we see a very modern house with pale green wall paint. We see that after the door was a small shoe rack and beside it were a pair of red and black shoes with a white sole. Beside the pair of shoes was a heavy yellow backpack, stuffed with an amount of items. And next to that was a medium sized, wooden coat hanger; hanging downwards on it was a deep brown trench coat. Onwards there was a set of wooden stairs that extended to the second floor of the house. Beside the stairs was an entrance to what seemed like a kitchen, as many appliances and raw ingredients were displayed among the kitchen slab while varieties of different exquisite food were scattered across the dining table. Opposite to the stair was a small table with a vase full of yellow daises, red roses and blue violets with a mirror indented above the table and in the wall. Beside the mirror in the wall were mostly painting deciphered from legendary Pokemon to pictures of Pokemon and humans side by side; along with a window in between the paintings. In the center of the room was a nice low-top wooden glass table with another vase of flowers on top of it along with magazines and newspapers. Directly in front of the table was a black TV set. There were two windows behind the TV and beside each other, showing the lush and small grass of Pallet Town from the inside. Beside the table were nice green couches made from a wooden frame and cotton pads. There were two seats of one sofa on each side of the table and there was a single three-seated sofa behind the table. We see that there were two figures in the house, a young boy with a Pikachu, slumped down on the three-seated green couch and a woman in her mid-thirties, standing before the entrance to the kitchen.

The woman was wearing a pink half-sleeve blouse, and inside was a yellow undershirt that barely could be seen from the bottom of the neck and the stomach area, that was left open since the third red button from the blouse was left unbuttoned. She wore a lavender skirt that went up to her knees and pale yellow shoes. Her reddish-brown hair went half way down to her back and the middle was wrapped in a blue hair band. The end of her hair went down and at the tip, was spiked up while the front of her hair fell neatly down her forehead and temple. Her auburn eyes showed warmth, compassion and hospitality and he face was lit up with a very cheery smile.

"You're welcome honey." The female replied as she went towards the kitchen area, leaving the young boy alone with his Pikachu to ponder in his thoughts.

The kitchen wasn't much but wasn't less either. More of a modernized kitchen in fact. It was painted in a shade of light yellow hue as slabs and cabinets surrounded the corners of the kitchen. There was a big wooden dining table at the lower left side of the kitchen, seated for six only. Behind the table was a big fridge containing many food and treats inside, and especially ketchup (Wait, how am I supposed to know that?). From the lower right side to the upper right side and finally ending a bit before the upper left side of the kitchen; was the continued line of the black slab. Brown wooden cabinets were above the slabs, indented in the wall and only went from the lower right part to the upper right portion of the kitchen. There was a sink struck up in between the upper right and upper left side of the kitchen and on the slab, digging beneath it. Directly above the sink was a window. Below the slab were more cabinets, except that they were white this time and stuck beneath the slab. To the left of the fridge was an oven, consisting of the oven itself at the bottom and a four burner at the top of it. And to the right of the fridge was the doorframe, leading over to the living room. And as stated before, there were many foods atop the slabs; ranging over from raw meat, to vegetable and even cooked delicacies. There was also even a toaster and a microwave besides the food.

The woman entered the kitchen slowly from the doorway and walked over to one of the upper cabinets. She opened it by turning the golden handle and took out a packet of biscuits and a box containing teabags. She closed the cabinet and put down the things she got out before she walked slightly beside the cabinet she opened previously and met another cabinet. She opened it slowly and got out a cup this time and a small plate. She closed that cabinet and put down the things again down on the slab. She walked across the room and stopped before the sink to reach out a jar of warm water. She walked back to where she originally put out her food that she got out and put down the jar beside them. She peeked a glance at the window above the sink. 5 P.M. The sun outside was slowly going downwards as shades of orange and pink started to cover the blanket of blue above. She walked over in front of the silver fridge this time and got out a bottle filled with red liquid. She walked back again and put it down beside the rest of the stuff she gathered.

'He really has grown up a lot within these four years…' She thought in her head as she sighed deeply and began to make the tea while opening the packet of biscuit and pouring them downwards on top of the white plate.

"TV? Nah. They don't show anything interesting except replays of Pokemon Leagues and Contests. What else is there to do then?" The young boy pondered out aloud to his yellow mouse as his mind kept on thinking.

"Pikachu pi chupi!" The mouse, who was just beside the trainer, cried out to his trainer, who was thinking very hard for something to do in his own house.

"Huh?" The confused trainer shook his head to clear away his thoughts and searched for the source of the voice. He looked down to see a very comfortable and relaxing Pikachu cuddled up with his tail hanging down the sofa. "Oh yeah! Ok, I'll check out my old room. Do you want to come with me?" The trainer pointed out his objective for now as he asked his mouse.

The mouse only shook his head slightly in the form of an answer as he closed his eyes gently, eyelids feeling heavy.

The trainer looked down and smiled at the sight of his Pokemon, seeing it so relaxed is something it could rarely do, due to their extreme training schedule. He should just let it sleep and relax comfortable under the warmth of the house. He patted the mouse slightly on the head and scratched the back of its ear before he stood up and walked over to make his way over to the stairs in his white socks. He gently walked up the stairs with his foot, making silent thumped noises as he did so and reached over to the second story of the house.

The second floor had a long hallway, covered in a wooden floor, before it was split into four rooms by the doors. There were two doors beside each other on the right while there was another door at the left of the hallway and across the two doors on the right. At the end of the hallway and across the entrance from the stairs, was another wooden door to a room, slightly ajar and opened. In between the two doors on the right and beside the door on the left were another two paintings deciphered from ancient Pokemon. The hallway was quite dark, but there was a light switch beside the entrance from the stairs.

The young boy turned on the light switch and went across the hallway and to the room at the end. He turned beside the door and saw a light switch. He flickered the switch to on and pushed aside the door as he walked in the room.

It was the door to a modern, but compacted bathroom. There was a white sink right after the entry from the door in the right with a mirror above it. The sink was dug into a marble slab, with white cabinets below it to be suited. Along with that, there was a white toilet seat along with a white toilet at the upper left side of the bathroom. There was also a small window above the toilet seat and two cabinets beside the window of the bathroom.

The trainer sighed as he walked in slowly to the bathroom and went over to the sink. He turned on the tap and moved it over to the sign for 'warm'. He turned his gaze down towards his hand. So dirty and filthy from the accident he recently took after tumbling down from his Charizard while flying but so cold and numb as well from the place he trained at for four entire years. He couldn't identify if his fingers had frostbites, but he was pretty much used to having them. He put his hands before the tap and felt cold water flowing from the tap and onto his hands. He didn't even move or flinch at the sudden temperature of the water. He was through much, much worse than this. It felt like normal water to him only. After a few seconds of cold water pouring down from the tap, it was quickly replaced by a very warm and enjoyable sensation.

The trainer standing before the sink felt a tinge of shivers as he washed his hands, the warm water now running through his cold and numb hands and fingers. He had forgotten that he put the tap's direction all the way to the max for warmth. But oddly enough, he wasn't jumping up and down, screaming "HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT!"

He felt a wave of pleasure wash through his entire body, even though his hands were the only one being soaked in the water. It was so comfortable; he wanted to keep on feeling it all day. He was never even comfortable enough within the past four years, but this was making him sigh in pleasure and relaxation.

"This must be…how Pikachu is feeling…right now…" The boy sighed again in the comfort and joy that he is currently feeling after comparing his sense of enjoyment and relaxation to the ones of his mouse. His mouse was sleeping and relaxing only, he was living in the warmth. "Hehehehe…" A small smile crept across his face as his eyes turned into a sort of dreamy expression. His knees bent down slightly as his back hunched over, his face now atop the sink's edge. He was looking at the tap like it was the most beautiful thing in the world. It was like he was falling madly in love, with a tap! His mind slowly shifted to a world of fantasy as he was lost in his thoughts, but the only thing is that he wasn't having any thoughts. He was just looking at the tap with a dreamy expression in an absent-minded state. His mind was enjoying this almost as much as his body was. He couldn't get any thoughts to his head, even if he wanted to think about something.

But alas, all good things must end. The warm water that was flowing down gently was slowly turning more colder and colder by the second as the warmth silently faded away from the source of the water. His enjoyment was slowly fading away as he felt the cold water wash away with his hands again continuously, as if mocking him for the end of his 'trial' of the warm water period.

The trainer broke away from his thoughts after he could completely feel that his sense of comfort was fading away, along with the warmth inside the water. He sighed deeply, this time in disappointment as he got back from his dreamy expression and hunched body over to a thinking mind and a straightened posture.

"Why doesn't cold water run out while warm water does? And why can't good things ever last?" The boy asked deliriously to no one in particular as he looked at his reflection in the mirror.

He sighed once again deeply as he saw the face of himself. His red hat now gone, gone along with the wind. Who knew where it is? Where it went along? Or who even has it right now? His messy black hair was decently brushed, although it was scattered and spiked in all directions from his head. His face turned into a slight frown, obviously from the interruption of his hypnotized, yet joyful state. But, he looked at his eyes in particular. Dull grey colored with a tinge of brown present in it. It felt cold and impassive to look at. He didn't get why people called him 'heartless' though. He loved all his Pokemon and his own mother with his entire heart. He also loved a few of his friends very much; including a certain girl. He would sacrifice himself just to save their lives. Because, they were his entire world. Nothing else really mattered to him.

Although sometimes, when he looks into a mirror, he gets into a state of disbelief by looking at how much he changed over the past few years. His mother at once, even kept on rambling about how much he had changed from a boy into a young man, making him hear about her terribly long speech. But he was nineteen now, he had to start taking care of himself. Fortunately, he already had a head start at that situation. He couldn't believe he was the same boy back in the past, because who he is now and who he was are like completely different people, alike only in minor ways other than the appearance.

He would sometimes flick the brim of his hat a bit above his head so one of his eyes were slightly visible to any trainer or coordinator that challenged him. Now he normally wouldn't like his eyes revealed to challengers and he knew that they would fear him if they looked into his eyes, but he just does that to intimidate his opponents a bit before the battle starts. Where and how did he learn to do this? Well, let's just say that a certain green haired boy helped him flick things with style, since that person was already quite an expert at that. But now his previous hat was gone… No more flicking with style to intimidate opponents… Hopefully, he'll still have a hat that actually fits him now.

He sighed once again at realizing he was so caught up in his trance that he forgot to wash his dirty hands with soap, and it was right beside the sink!

Then suddenly, realization hit him pretty hard. He remembered why he was at the second floor. Not to wash his hands and get into a daze. He had forgotten to visit his room.

After breaking his gaze from the reflection in his mirror, he walked outside to the hallway, closed the door to the bathroom and flicked the switch for the light to off. He gently walked a few more feet in the hallway until he reached the door at the left side of the hallway. He opened it and it revealed to be a room…

It was quite a big room in fact but didn't have much. The walls were painted in a sky blue color. The bed was located at the upper left of the room, a simple blue cover spread over it. Beside the bed was a small side table with a red and white alarm clock followed by a window with no curtains at all, intended to wake someone up early. In front of the bed was a small wooden desk with a chair. Above the table were many glass containers, and inside of them were Gym Badges obtained from defeating a Gym Leader. There were about four glass containers and eight in each, equaling to an amount of thirty two Gym Badges. Across the bed was a TV set on top of a wooden stand with glasses. Inside the glasses were many achievements and gifts, ranging from trophies and items to special items given by one of his friends. And finally, beside the TV were pictures of many people hung up in the wall. They were pictures from when he was younger, standing along with his friends.

The boy looked and moved his gaze around his old room, spotting everything that was there. He was surprised; his mom must have kept the room tidy the entire time. He walked over to the bed and slumped down on it gently with a soft thud, his head resting on the soft pillow that was enriching the quality of the trainer's rest.

"It's been so long…" He whispered to himself as his eyes looked up at the ceiling. "Yet, I can remember everything that happened…"

His mind became preoccupied with the memories that flooded directly in towards his mind. He could recall all of them very clearly, some even not having to think after. All these memories, he couldn't help but wonder how his mind managed to store them up for so long? How he never even forgot one important memory? How his mind would always be flooded with them when he was in somewhere very similar to him?

'Nah, I'm just going crazy. I need to rest a bit.' The boy thought as he tried to push them away from his thoughts, but didn't succeed at all.

He closed his eyes to focus and rely on his willpower to keep him from succumbing to slumber accidently; even though it was way early to go to bed, he was very tired from the long day he had. He didn't know if things were going to work out into plan, him being able to reach his destination by today. But of course, he wouldn't mind reaching there tomorrow since it doesn't start until the day after tomorrow.

His mind couldn't resist the thoughts and memories coming into his head anymore. He just let them flow gently throughout his brain as many pictures and videos popped-up. He slowly cleared out the ones that weren't the most important or joyful until there were a few scenes replaying in his head over and over again. He only sighed as he remembered those times; some were made of joy while some were made of sorrow.

"I'm sorry…" He whispered softly in a hush tone to the empty space around him.

His mind thought back to the day where the adventure and action of his life began until the tragedy of his life. The reason for his turn and change of direction from his former objective and dream. Why he did it and what he had to do. His Pokemon only accompanied him during the switch of his phase of life.

'Be a man. You can't dwell in the past forever…' His mind kept on sending the message to his body yet his heart disagreed. The boy had no idea on who to root for in the battle of the heart and mind. Heck, he didn't even know if it was his mind or heart that was speaking from his true self inside. Confusion was left upon him often in a heavy daze as he went into a delirious state with the crazy, yet serious ideas and thoughts popping up in his mind. Sometimes the things that blinked in on his mind made him think incomprehensibly at the questions given. He really appreciated his Pokemon a lot; for helping him through his tough times and always sticking by his side. He considered them his companions for life even.

Compacting and arranging the thoughts in his head, a few of the hardest times of his life were playing on set in his mind. They vary from saving the world countless times, to facing some of the toughest opponents and making the hardest decisions in life. But the thoughts of his decision just wouldn't leave his mind alone; it never even did for the past four years.

The next thing he heard was a huge creaking sound coming from somewhere near him accompanied by gentle footsteps, that apparently snapped him out of his train of memories. He immediately jumped up and sat up straight in his bed to look up for where the noise came from and who or what was causing it on such a peaceful occasion. He could see that door starting to move slowly, making more creaking noises as it did so. The boy knew exactly who it was from the start. Who else would come in to his room? And Pikachu certainly couldn't reach up to the doorknob.

As the door slowly shifted and opened up, the silhouette of a figure was seen from the shadows of the hallway. The person outside slowly started to walk into the room until she went over to the bed, which was occupied by the trainer.

"Honey, tea's ready." The figure said as she stole glances from the trainer's room until her eyes finally rested upon the boy.

"Thanks mom." The boy said silently as he put his foot down on the floor after shifting to the other side of the bed as he started to stand up to face the woman before him.

"Are you ok dear?" The woman asked with concern filled in her voice as she eyed the boy before her. It was the same woman in the kitchen from before.

"Yeah mom, just thinking is all." The boy answered in a response as he looked behind over her shoulder and eyed the photos that were hung up in his wall.

The boy was a few inches taller than the woman, five or so. He had really grown tall in such a short time. But of course, he was her son.

The woman caught a glimpse of the boy, immediately understanding what he was looking at from her shoulder.

"I'll leave you alone for a while. But don't come down too late, or else the tea will get cold." The woman said as she turned her back and walked towards the direction of the door.

"Thanks mom. And tell Pikachu to save some ketchup for me and not take it all to himself greedily." The boy said out, followed by a light chuckle.

The woman giggled only in response as she walked out of the door. "It's ok; we have plenty of ketchup in the fridge." She said as she looked over her shoulder to see the boy.

"Yeah, but knowing Pikachu; he'll probably gorge it all down. Plus, it's a matter of health also, too much ketchup is bad." He said with another chuckle as he approached near the pictures hung in frames and nailed down on the wall.

"Don't worry honey; I'll save some for you and make sure he doesn't eat too much." She said as she slowly proceeded to close the door behind her, leaving the trainer all alone to himself.

"Thanks again mom." Could be heard from the boy's voice as he began to look and examine each of the pictures before him. The next thing after the sound of the door creaking was footsteps silently fading away slowly as it got smaller and smaller by each second. He looked at the door again for a brief second before returning his gaze towards his wall of photos.

"So many memories… I miss the old times…" He whispered to the empty space around him again as he let a single tear cascade slowly down his eyes, to his cheek and down to the floor with the noise of dripping water. He couldn't take it anymore; he was waiting for the perfect time to let out all his emotions, something he had done so very rarely within the few years. The walls he held up so strongly for the past few years were easily crushed down to pieces by the flowing memories that were spiraling throughout his mind.

That single tear soon turned into a few more droplets of tears as they kept on dripping down from the young trainer and hit the floor with a silent splash. He couldn't believe he was crying like this. He had thought he had trained his emotional mind to the best of control in the years of training in the mountain. But he couldn't help it when he looked at the memories of his past, powerless as they flooded back into his minds and remember him of the times he had back then. Good thing his mom had left him alone for a while and Pikachu was resting cozily on the couch. Maybe that was the reason why his mom had left him alone for some time to himself.

"I'm sorry…" The boy whispered the same thing again mournfully as more tears just kept on pouring down from his eyes. The blue carpet below was getting wet, but he didn't care at all. The more he looked at the pictures of himself and his friends together as they celebrated their achievements together in joy, the more pain it brought to his heart. There were not only pictures of celebrated achievements together, but partings and farewells of last pictures taken together until they meet again in the future.

Too bad that's almost impossible for him now, almost as much as he wants to, he can't. As the boy would say it, 'it's too late for doing that now…'

He took the emotional moment to step towards the pictures even more as he raised one of his hands up and began to trace the picture with his palm and fingers. He sighed deeply as he remembered every single one of those special moments captured, not even forgetting any detail in there. His mom had really done a good job keeping the room tidy, not a speck of dust even detectable in the room or on the pictures.

His hand stopped upon a certain picture as he looked at it with gleaming eyes of happiness but that was quickly turned to a somber frown of sorrow within a matter of seconds. He used the forearm of his other arm to wipe away his falling tears as he inspected the picture he gazed upon. It was still the same as when it was years ago. Even though the boy went through a lot in the face of reality, nothing had changed in the picture. He took one last trip down memory lane as he saw the picture in front of him. The frame wasn't that big, golden rims surrounding the photo as it was scaled to fit the size of the frame.

It was a very beautiful landscape along with the background as a boy with a red hat and a Pikachu were standing next to a girl in red clothes. They were both holding each other with both of their arms as the sunlight shun upon the two and the gentle breeze swept through their hair, creating a very peaceful yet playful scene.

The boy couldn't believe how long it was, and just how much happened within that span of time. It felt like centuries when it was only a few years. He sighed as he moved the hand that was on the picture away and wiped away the remaining of his tears, apparently which more came out during his reminisce.

"How long will this trauma last? How long will I last even? It's too late for that now…" The boy asked hypothetically to the world around him, except that he wouldn't get any form of an answer at all.

He just shook his head in confusion as he shrugged off the last of his memories from his mind, walking over to towards the door and catch up with his mother and Pikachu.

"I should forget about this for now…" He whispered and sighed once again as he faced the door and opened the golden doorknob, making the creaking door pull apart openly. But just before he was about to walk out of the doorframe and into the hallway, and inside force stopped him.

He didn't know what it was and what it wanted. And for some reason, he started to walk back towards his room and over to where he was a minute ago. The will inside of the boy just gave in as he looked at what he was planning to do.

"I'm taking you with me; you were always my good luck charm…" He whispered again as his hands reached out for one of the photos and grabbed it. They retracted to his body soon enough as he looked at the picture in his hands. He took a good look at his room one last time before walking over to the doorway and passing through it with no interruptions this time around and closing the door behind him.

He took a few steps and walked through the dark hallway safely as he reached the stairs and began to walk down, making more thumping and creaking noises coming out as he descended down the stairs. The room below was filled with light as the sun was soon beginning to set behind the hills of Pallet Town, which were visible in from the nice given window. He rubbed his eyes with his hands rather roughly, making sure there was no evidence of his emotional breakdown.

And when he completely walked down the stairs, he could see the woman from before sitting down on the two seated couch in the right while Pikachu was sitting down on the right of the same three seated couch in the back, hogging down on a red liquid substance.

"Honey, your tea's getting cold." Was the first thing he heard after entering the first floor again, other than the noisy sucking noises of delight made from the yellow mouse while gorging down on the food.

"It's fine mom." The boy reassured her as he walked over to the couches to take a seat and flopped down right beside Pikachu. He took the time to place the picture beside him on the left of the couch, face down so that no one could see what he had with him and that Pikachu couldn't reach for it from the opposite side. A few seconds later, he straightened up and reached out his arms for the teacup on the table. It was quite a long distance away from the sofas, but the boy managed to bend over a bit and reach for it, all in the while making sure it wasn't spilt on the expensive carpet of fur above the ground. He also managed to make a grab for one of the biscuits on the plate beside the teacup as he retracted both of his arms.

He gobbled the biscuit up in one bite and grabbed for another one all in the while as he looked at the woman beside her, drinking her tea as well as flashing a smile to the boy upon her notice. He just smiled back and chomped the second one up as well before he turned his gaze towards the greedy little mouse.

"Give me a little?" He asked in a pleading tone which made the mouse break out from his delicate savoring and look up at the boy.

The mouse acted reluctantly at first; not wanting to hand over his prized delicacy, but just complied afterwards and handed the bottle over to his trainer with a slight smile on his face.

The trainer took the bottle from the mouse with his hand and opened his mouth up wide. He faced up towards the ceiling and made his arm move over until his hand was on top of his face, positioning the bottle so that some of the liquid could come out. He chugged down the back of the bottle hard with his other hand, forcing the liquid to come out closer. And soon enough, red liquid came oozing out slowly from the bottle of the cap and into the waiting mouth of the boy.

The mouse just looked at his trainer with wide eyes, disappointed that a little bit of his delicious treat was going into the boy's mouth and then the stomach. But he just shrugged it off; it's just ketchup, there's plenty more in the fridge. Just like the boy, the mouse had managed to share more often as well as develop more manners.

Apparently, some of the ketchup had fallen on the lips of the trainer, but he just licked it off with his tongue. He positioned the bottle back to the proper way as one his arms went down towards his lap while the other one was heading over to the electric rodent.

"Thanks buddy." He said as he handed over the bottle and patted the mouse on the head for his generosity and heart.

"Pika!" The mouse replied as he happily took his possession back and began sucking down on it slowly just like before.

He took the teacup that was beside him on the sofa into his hands and began sipping it gently as he looked out the window and into the outdoors.

The sun had already set down as the orange and pink colors across the sky were fading into a darker shade of blue. Many little white lights appeared in the sky as they stretched all over the endless amount of blue space taken up, shining just like diamonds as they did so. In the center was a crescent moon, emitting off the moonlight as well as giving off a bright and shining view.

"What a perfect night…" He whispered over to make sure his mother had just heard about what he said as his eyes were in awe from the sight before him.

"I know, beautiful isn't it?" She answered back as she too was mesmerized by the view.

"Never seen such a sight like this ever…" He whispered back to his mother as he swore he just saw a few familiar faces pop up upon the blanket of dark blue.

"I know, me too." She sighed as she looked away from the sight and at the boy. She let out a short giggle at the way her son was looking at the beauty before them. "And we're only watching this from indoors, why don't you head out later on this night? You may never get a chance to see something like this ever again." She said as she smiled slightly.

"Definitely." He said as he nodded his head in reply and broke out from his trance to turn his eyes to his mother.

"So Red, I'm assuming you're going to enter the upcoming tournament?" She said as she looked at the boy, but by the look on the face of his expression, she could see that she had just made a mistake.

"Mom, we're in the comfort of our privacy in our home; you don't need to call me Red now." The boy said as he let out a short chuckle at the mistake of his mother. Pikachu was too busy with the ketchup that it didn't really care about the conversation going on. (Yes he's the mysterious Red from the first chapter -_- Took you long enough!)

"Right, sorry about that honey." She said as she let out a giggle at her own mistake. "So, are you going to enter?" She asked once again, but she pretty much knew the answer by reading the boy's face.

"Definitely. I'm gonna prove my strength and kick some ass out there!" The legendary trainer said as he made a fist pump in the air with the hand that was not occupied with holding the tea.

"Young man, mind your language!" The woman said as she reached over to put down the teacup on the table and after retracting her arms, she waggled her forefinger in a scolding manner.

"Right, sorry mom. Hehehehe…" Red apologized as his fist pump fell down and he scratched the back of his messy black hair in embarrassment. The mouse again, was too busy to notice his trainer's behavior or words.

'Same old boy, always excited for a challenge.' She thought as she smiled at the nervous trainer in front of her. She had noticed that he had been acting differently lately, more like his former self. Maybe he was really excited for the tournament. Excitement, nervousness and embarrassment? Those were something's she rarely saw from the rather impassive boy within the past few years. But nonetheless, she was as glad as ever to know that he still had some of his old personalities, qualities and traits buried within him. Maybe he really was turning back to his old self slowly…

The young trainer took another sip of the tea from the cup and then began to pet the mouse on the head again on the head. Only now did the woman realize that there was something on the left of the boy. Curiosity filled her body as she needed to know what that was. She moved her head a bit to see it was some kind of rusty old frame. But the real question was which picture was displayed in there?

"Honey, why are you hanging around with a photo frame? And does that have a photo inside of it?" She inquired the young trainer as she looked into his eyes.

The boy just sighed deeply after raising his hand and taking another sip of tea. He knew when his mother was engulfed with curiosity like this; there would be no stopping her until she gets the real answer, especially if it was coming from her own son.

"Yes there's a photo inside of here. And I'm taking this to the tournament with me." The boy replied, slightly nervous and embarrassed at his mother's inquiry.

The woman immediately picked up the tone of the boy's voice. Very light and soft, but definitely hiding something in there. A sudden thought sprung up in her head as she already had a good idea to what picture it really was. But she decided to push it a bit, to see if her hunch was correct on the money here.

"Why?" She cocked her head as she looked for an answer to her son's weird behavior. She may have a good chance on what the picture displays and deciphers, but she had no idea as to why her son was taking the picture with him.

"It's for good luck…" Red slightly whispered, but loud enough for his mother to hear his plans as a sad small smile was plastered across his face just like that at the mention.

"Oh…" The woman replied, knowing of her son's sudden drop in attitude. She knew it would be best not to push the subject any farther and cause more pressure on the boy, for now that is. "Anyways, I invited Professor Oak over here. He should be here any minute now." She said as she was relieved at her brilliant idea for a change of the main topic.

"Professor Oak? That's great! Now I don't have to walk around 2 kilometers to reach his laboratory!" He said with delight in his voice as he flashed a smile this time. But her mother knew very clearly it was not from the sudden unexpected change of plan, but from the pressure released from his back for the due moment, preventing memories from breaking into the barrier into his mind once more.

"Well, I invited him over for some tea but he said he had work to do in the lab, although luckily he managed to have a clear duty for a short period of time when I asked him to come over. Something concerning the matter of 'registration'. I wonder what that means?" She asked herself and to the boy as she began to wonder off into her mind.

"Mom, it's the registration for the upcoming tournament. All professional authorities get employed with this job to handle and accept registrations from trainers around the world. Quite stressful is you ask me." The boy sighed at her mother's lack of knowledge as he explained the term to his mother as she broke off from her thoughts.

"Oh, so that's what he's been doing for the past few weeks. No wonder he's loaded and stashed with work every time." The mother said as she put her finger on her chin and began thinking. Another sudden thought popped up in her mind as she began to form the words for an inquiry. "Wait a minute. Don't you need to register also?" She asked again to the relaxed boy drinking his tea.

Pikachu had finished eating out all the ketchup a while ago while our focus was on our main characters for this scene, and was now relaxing comfortably and soothingly by lying down in the couch in a curled up position.

"Well if I go by whom I am now, Red; then I probably don't need to register manually at all. They can get me into the tournament if I want to, before registration closes in all regions. But, I'm thinking of going incognito for some while so I can hopefully register when the Professor comes over here." He announced his complex plan to his mother as he took one last sip from the tea and put it down on the table. He moved over his mouse to the rodent and picked him up gently so he can relax on top of his lap. He began to pet the back of the mouse while slumping deeply into the couch.

"And why exactly would you do that?" She asked with a glint of curiosity in her brownish-red eyes. She relaxed also by relaxing down on the couch as well.

"Many reasons. One of the most obvious ones are screaming and crazy fan girls." He said with a deep sigh at the many thoughts of reactions from his many 'fans'.

She let out a quick giggle at the reply from the boy. What the young man just said was far more than true. Oh, the things he had gotten into with them were the hardest to get out of. "Oh, I guess that's very reasonable for you to hide your identity. Although I think you may be exaggerating a bit unless you have some other good reasons as well. Anyways, do you still remember about the-"

"Mom!" The boy yelled out as he interrupted his mother swiftly and saved an old memory from entering his mind as a shiver of fear ran down his spine and he shuddered a bit while thinking of one of the tightest situations he was in, related with the subject they were mentioning earlier. However, he just tried his best to diminish of it quickly and stuff it into the back of his mind. "Please not that! That's just too horrible to remember…" He quickly added in a very shaky voice and tried his to prevent his mother from speaking up furthermore on the topic.

"Sorry about that honey." The mother said as she added in a quick and cheeky smile to her son, however bright enough to make the current subject dissolve quite easily on its own. "I just can't believe you've grown up into a man. You're so popular and known and almost all the ladies want you…" She acted in a proud voice as she put up a sigh at the remembrance of the old memories. Some were greatly wonderful, some were plainly horrible while some where just freaky. But whatever he went through, he still managed to stay on top of the world.

"Well I can't have all of them. But, sometimes I would not believe the lengths they would go to just in order to impress me, or in other cases, creep me out considerably." He added in as he chuckled a bit at what he just said, knowing it was well over true.

"Yeah I know about that part very well. But I would want the perfect girl for my little boy!" She screamed in excitement and delight over the prediction of her son's possible future.

"Please not this again…" The boy let out a quick grumble, signifying his annoyance and disappointment at and over his mother's antics.

"Too bad most of the girls left in the world only want you for your fame and fortune. They never want to look deeper into the person." She quickly added in after hearing her son groan in complaint, hoping to somehow get him involved in the subject properly.

"If they knew about my person, they would simply run away." He added in with a slightly chuckle at the joke he had just made up, possibly good enough to be true for the most part.

"If only you two were together, she would have been the perfect one." The woman sighed at her own words as she hung her head down, memories from the past invading her mind continuously, but not before took a look over slightly and caught a glimpse of the boy with the corner of her eyes to search for an expression on his face.

The moment he heard what his mother had just said, his chuckling immediately disappeared as a serious expression ghosted across his face in a matter of seconds. He knew exactly who his mother was trying to refer to and he had to plainly counter that, for it was not true at all, well for him at least. "Wait a minute! Mom please, enough about the past here." He said calmly as he tried his best to form proper and firm words in his mind for an appropriate sentence without releasing too much rage inside of it and to his mother. "And you cannot be serious about pairing me up with her! Why would I ever want to be together and in love with a witch?" He yelled out slightly to the poor woman, who just kept on listening to his outburst, shocked in the heart by every word. "Love is for suckers anyways…" He mumbled the last part quietly to himself, but the mother's ears were sensitive enough to pick up on what the boy had just said to himself.

The woman's head immediately sprung up as she quickly came over to the one's defense to who she was referring to before and who her son just insulted. Her face hardened and her voice raised a bit as she began to start her own outburst and all together, create an argument between the two. "Young man, she is not a witch! She's a beautiful, young, caring, sweet and very talented girl. How can you call her a witch just like that when she's obviously not? And love is the most beautiful thing on the planet! It's what enriches our lives with great eternal happiness, all due to a single, but very special person." She quickly retorted to the boy's previous words, anger enthralling within her body and soul. She didn't like it when people badmouthed about other people, and she especially didn't like it when her son was doing that to a certain girl.

"You just look at her from the outside; you don't even know how she acts on the inside. And love is for people who just want to die and rot away from the insides." He quickly responded as he lowered his voice and tried to sound as soft as possible while staying calm and not let the rage flow through within his body. He didn't want to target and unleash all his anger and annoyance upon his mother just like that.

"You never even gave her the chance! And you're just talking like that because you were jealous!" She yelled at her son for his wild explanations again. She was truly getting annoyed now at the boy's words. To her, he wasn't even talking properly. Every word he said and joined together to make a sentence, didn't make sense at all. She didn't like the way he was talking at all and needed to counter for what was right.

"Mom, is three years a chance, or an opportunity? That's how long I waited and no response at all. It wasn't until later that I found out who she really was inside. And so what if I'm jealous? I don't care. True to the word that I miss them, including her, a lot; doesn't mean I'm not going to forgive her, even nor is she going to forgive me. I don't even want her to forgive me. The argument was set just like that." He explained as tinges of anger started to drip in his voice and his face became outlined with one of a more annoyed expression. Still, he was trying to keep his mind calm and cool like always and not start an whole argument involving harsh words over a simple subject, but to them, it seemed like the fate of the world.

Her mood taking a complete 180˚ slip, the woman's face immediately softened as she heard what her son had just spoke out. The words she recently said came into her mind as she was regretting her sudden outburst to start an argument with her son. She knew that he was partially right about some parts of it, and she couldn't do anything about it. Although she was still angry for some of the words the boy said, she still felt sad for the young trainer on the couch, who was relaxing and letting his mind vent off the steam in a passive way by just letting him sulk. Her voice softened considerably as she chose to speak her next words wisely and avoid causing another argument with the legendary trainer. "Honey, you can't possibly stay mad at her forever…" She said as she tried to change the boy's direction and take him out from this.

His face softened as well after hearing his mother's voice soften drastically and her face turn sympathetic. "Yes I can, and she can too. It's made like that and it cannot be changed at all." He whispered around slightly with tones of sorrow in his voice. "She's probably married by now anyways. And I'm better off alone, living a life without countless worries and overwhelming pressure." He countered her opinion in a passive way without releasing off another argument.

The mother felt intently sympathetic for her son, knowing what he had been through in his life. She was starting to feel sorrow envelop her body and replace the rage and anger within her. She could feel his pain. But she knew it was the right thing to do for she had to come to that person's defense as well.

But before either of them could press further onto the subject, a large knock issued on the door. The woman immediately sprang up from the couch and went over quietly towards the door. She sighed, no peephole. When will she have the time and be able to plant one in there? She opened the door without hesitation or an interrogation and looked at who was standing before her, not expecting to see who she is seeing now right before her. She thought it would be Professor Oak, but…

"Mime!" A voice called out from behind the door as the figure of the voice raised its hand slightly to wave it to the woman.

The woman snapped out of her surprise and began gestured the figure within the house with her hand while sidestepping to the doorframe. "Mimey, back from vacation so soon? How was it?" She said as she saw the figure enter with the house after being allowed grant and space.

"Mister mime mime Mister Mister mime." The figure said as it took a deep breath to inhale to air before stepping inside and passing by the woman leaning by the doorframe.

Red peeked over to the side and tried to catch a glimpse at who exactly was entering the house. Pikachu was obviously deep in slumber by now and relaxing delicately, tired from his reign on hogging down on the red liquid he so deliciously ate with all his might.

After the figure took its first step into the house and stepped on the wooden floor, Red could immediately decipher and recognize it with ease. His face flashed a smile as he saw who it was.

The figure was about four feet tall. It had a 'clowny' appearance to it as well. It had a pale pink tone painted on its skin and its body was fully rounded and white, with a pink circle coming from the middle and more pink circles attached to its arm and leg joints. Its legs were slender and thin and had a sort of white kneecap on the knees accompanied by a midnight blue sandals wore on the feet with a jester type of look upon it. Its arms were slender and thin also with the pale pink tone in the skin and its hands were covered in, what seemed like white gloves with pink circles on the tip of each finger. It had a round head with pink circular patches on its cheek and two blue horns in the shape of a saw, poking out from both side of its temples. It wore a deep black sunglass that covered over its eyes. Its eyes could be seen marked and enrolled with happiness, even if a sunglass was wore and covered its eyes, and it had a very playful and cheery look on its face as it was plastered across with a bright smile.

"Mime!" The Pokemon shouted immediately as it turned to look at the couches and who exactly was eying her with a smile on their face.

The boy immediately broke off when he saw the Pokemon shudder out a scream. "Wha? Oh, good to see you again Mimey." He said as his everlasting smile was still flashed upon his face and to the barrier Pokemon.

"Mime mime!" The Pokemon said as she took another good look at the boy, sitting before her on the couch comfortably. She caught a quick glimpse of his figure and marked him into one she couldn't recognize at all, although she had some suspicion. Now, her white hands were surrounded with a glow of pink as she lifted one of her arms up and pointed her hand towards the boy.

The young trainer knew immediately what was going on. He needed to desperately get out of this without hurting the Pokemon, or else he would receive quite a beating. "Mimey, it's me!" Red called out frantically as he tried to shake some sense into the clown Pokemon from being mistaken badly for an intruder or unwanted guest.

The Pokemon refused and shook her head, having no idea at all to who it really was that she couldn't identify. The pink aura on her hands started to glow more intensely as it got more brighter and was prepared to launch an attack.

The boy just sighed. It wasn't going to work. Hopefully, he'll still be in good condition to participate for the tournament. Soon, he could feel his body getting lighter as he was being lifted up from the couch and into the air and shaken rather roughly while not applying the rules of gravitational force.

The Pokemon began to mercilessly, shake his so called 'intruder' back and forth while using its Psychic powers. But she didn't bother to notice there was an electric yellow mouse from beside where the young boy was. She was going to wake the mouse up by applying the same kind of 'treatment' it was currently doing to the trainer by lifting her other hand up, until…

"Mimey, put him down!" Chimed in the voice of a woman as she quickly ran over from the doorframe and beside the couches to where the boy was roughly being shaken back and forth while floating on the air currently, forgetting to close the door even.

The Pokemon reluctantly put down the so called 'intruder' into the ground as the pink glow from her hands began to slowly disappear and she lowered her arms down to her side. And the next thing that could be heard was a loud thump on the ground as the legendary trainer fell on his back and onto the ground without much of a warning at first.

"OW!" The boy screamed out in pain as he could feel pain starting to envelop his backside completely. How come the Mr. Mime didn't attack Pikachu at all? Well, Red definitely wasn't one to complain, wine and nag about something seriously and easily so he just shook away his complaints and struggled to stand up properly using his hands. He pushed his hands down on the ground and used them for support to lift himself up and then his knees eventually came for more support. In a second, he was standing up, sagging over and using the sofa's handle as more support to stand straightly.

"Mime!" The Pokemon yelled out to the woman in front of her, surprised by her action for calling her Psychic attack off.

"Ow!" The boy let out a shriek of pain as he moved over to the sofa and flopped down on it. The sudden wave of the impact was enough to wake Pikachu up from his deep slumber.

"Pika!" The mouse jumped up in surprise as he looked to his right and left continuously.

'(Red, Red's mother, a Mr. Mime and the door is open... Wait, a Mr. Mime?)' The mouse thought out in surprise as he was about to start charging up the electric red sacs on his cheek and unleash one of his world class famous Thunderbolts on the barrier Pokemon, but that was before he realized who the Mr. Mime actually was. "Pika!" The mouse cried out as he waved his hand continuously in front of the Mr. Mime to make it acknowledge his presence and identity.

"Mime?" The barrier Pokemon said as he looked the yellow mouse. And only now did he realize who it actually was. "Mime mime!" She said as she dashed over quickly to the electric rodent.

"Pika chupi pikachu!" The mouse said as he pointed to the trainer beside him, who had his eyes closed and head spinning.

"Mr. Mime?" The clown asked in confusion to who the 'intruder' actually was.

"Mimey, don't you know who it is?" The woman said as she walked over to the couch she was previously sitting on and fell down on it.

Mimey was about to open her mouth and ask the same question again; Who is he? But realization hit her Pokemon brain like lightning as she found a suspicion immediately. She turned her gaze towards the trainer and took a good long look at him again while taking her sunglasses off and into her hands. But after the pieces came together, from the Pikachu to his clothing and why the woman was trying to protect him, she found a direct answer.

"Mime?" The Pokemon asked the sunken boy in hope for an answer that will clear her suspicion.

"Great to see you Mimey. Looks like your Psychic attack packs quite a punch." The boy said as he opened his eyes to look at Mimey before him and let out a slight chuckle along with a faint grin.

"Mime Mr. mime mister mister mime…" The Pokemon said with embarrassment and shame as she looked down at the ground and avoided the boy's gaze.

"Nah it's ok; I'd be pretty suspicious of a person who I don't even know, being right inside my house. Well, at least I'll still be able to compete… I think." Red reassured the barrier Pokemon as he chuckled out again at his last sentence.

"Don't worry honey, you'll be fine!" The woman chimed in and flashed a bright smile at the boy and the two Pokemon, who just sweat dropped at the mother's cheery attitude.

"Mime Mr. mime mime." Mimey announced as she walked over to the kitchen and went inside it a few seconds later while waving its hand.

"Ok, you can go get settled down there." The female called out from behind as she watched the Pokemon get comfortable in the kitchen. After she saw the Pokemon fully adopted with its surroundings in the kitchen, she turned her gaze back to the trainer on the couch. "So, what was I going to say again?" She asked as she put her chin on top of her finger and began thinking.

The boy knew immediately what she was referring to and he knew he had to prevent that subject being brought up again. He sat up straight quickly and grabbed Pikachu to put him on his lap with one of his hands while he took hold of the old photo frame with his other hand. "Nothing mom. You weren't going to say anything at all." He said frantically while laughing nervously as he tried his best to flash a convincing smile.

Pikachu looked up at his trainer and just sweat dropped and sighed at his trainer's impression. In the trainer's other hand, the mouse could see there was some sort of rusty old picture frame with a picture inside of it. He tried to make a grab for it but that only resulted in the young boy pulling it back with his hand and out of reach from the rodent's current position. This caused the mouse to pout in frustration and annoyance at his failed attempt and his trainer's weird behavior for being so nervous.

An imaginary light bulb clicked and flashed on top of the woman's head as she remembered about the topic she was going to discuss further with the boy. The woman flashed a very faint, evil like grin as she was about to speak up. However, the boy was able to notice this and drops of sweat started to pour down his face at a rapid pace. The mouse could only sigh deeply even more at the different expressions of the two humans.

"Yes, I was about to continue speaking on you-know-who." She said as she flashed another very evil grin at the boy and her eyes grew smaller, like if she was preparing something big in store that may as well leave the boy paralyzed.

The young trainer was starting to get really nervous and therefore, very uncomfortable at his mother's currently weird behavior. He didn't like where this was going, be it another serious argument with him about 'you-know-who' or just tease him about love with 'you-know-who'. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and relaxed his mind. He was prepared for any question his mother might throw at him and he was ready to try and counter those questions efficiently. He opened his eyes to see that his mother still had that evil grin on her face. Long discussion or teasing? Well, probably from her current look, it looked like she was going to tease the young trainer in an attempt to make him blush furiously rather than start a whole new argument, which would cause her look to become serious from before. Well, at least he won't get barraged with questions and inquires which would cause him to feel the pressure by looking back at his past.

"I know you like her." The woman whispered as the room suddenly went into a queer and eerie atmosphere, well for the boy that is, but his mother was just trying to be manipulative and make him spill the wrong beans.

"I don't." The boy calmly replied, trying his best not to crack under the heat of the moment and show the nervousness in his tone of voice. The second he stutters a bit at speech or even a tinge of red appears on his cheeks, he is going to be doomed.

"You liked her at least." She whispered again, not wanting to drop the subject. That huge evil grin never leaving her face, not even fading away a bit; in fact, it was probably growing bigger. She knew the boy wasn't very comfortable when he was forced to reminisce the past, but she was just having fun now. Besides, it wasn't like they were starting another major argument or something like that.

"Liked is a past tense." He stated out to rectify the sentence to his mother. The young trainer knew that at least one secret would be spilled out, and he's deciding to put the conversation on route to the only secret he probably has.

"So you're admitting you liked her?" She asked as her grin broadened even more. This was where she had caught him up and surrounded him in a corner, no escape and no way to change the topic. The next answer has definitely got to be in some sort of form of the truth.

"Well, there's nothing to hide actually. Yes I used to like her, well before I found out about her 'evil' side. But do you think I actually still like her now?" He asked rhetorically as he put up a slight smirk, surprising the woman at the process of it happening and making her evil grin drop.

It took a few seconds to recover the thought on why the boy was smirking like that, but she came up with an even bigger statement that is sure to be sent to her son's heart and definitely cause him to crack under the pressure and heat of the situation. It was time for her to turn the tables against the boy and make him give out some answers, and she knew exactly how to do it. Then and there, her mischievous grin had returned once again. Now it was the young trainer's turn to be surprised.

"You know, first love never dies…" She said as the grin on her face broadened up a bit again and she found her answer. Of course, why didn't she think up of this before? She needed to force the boy into revelation and make him try and confide his 'assumed' secrets, well assumed to her at least.

And as predicted, the boy's smirk was quickly replaced with an expression of surprise quite quickly. The words had clearly entered his mind as he struggled to find a counter to that statement he so desperately denies "Ok mom, it was may be just a crush, but love? Seriously? Come on! And no, I don't have any of those feelings now." He exclaimed rather proudly and haughtily as his tense lightened as well, hoping his mother would finally stop the interrogation.

"I know you still love her." The woman kept on teasing him yet again. What an ambitious and persistent attitude, a bit too much exactly.

"Uhhh… Mom, you're seriously another Dawn. And no, I don't like her in any sort of way now." He stated yet again, denying the mother's continuous statements. He was hoping by that now, that some way; anyway, he could get out of this situation. Well, looks like he won't be reaching over to the tournament base by nightfall. His plans just got messed up, but he had to wait for the famous professor who was going to pay a visit to his house soon enough. But come on, he needs a miracle right now!

Annoyance was flowing through her veins again. Just admit it already! Mother's intuition is always right, well maybe... Her face was starting to get red with anger boiling inside of her. Even the trainer could feel the abnormal rise in temperature all of a sudden and he could assume the source was coming from somewhere near him. Her skin was blistering as she clenched her fingers shut and tried to release off the steam inside of her without causing too much of a verbal commotion that may as well attract all the nice and lovely neighbors down the street or somewhere close to the house.

"Yes you-!" She was about to say out again to the boy… Well that was before she was interrupted, yet again. And her mind was quick into thinking on how she would be gentle enough to ask for and provide a death-wish to the person who just interrupted their long, but intriguing and fascinating conversation.

"Delia? I heard a loud noise while I was walking over to your house. Is everything fine here?" An old and creaky voice could be heard from the houses as a very old man burst in to the house through the doorframe, since the door was blatantly left open just like that.

"Huh?" The boy and the mother asked in unison as they stood up in surprise from the sofa's, the boy dropping the photo frame and the yellow rodent on the couch again, and looked over to the side to see a very old man, panting and gasping heavily for air with a worried expression on his face, his body slouched down and his head bent over, drops of sweats dripping every now and then from his face.

The man could be seen with a rather chubby figure of his own. He was wearing a plain red Polo T-shirt that was neatly tucked in by a brown belt with a silver buckle, which held up his brownish-saffron trousers. He was a white full-sleeved lab coat as an overall which reached a little bit past his knees and right above his brown loafer shoes. His hair was hued in a light grayish-brown color that matched along with his orange skin tone. His eye brows were kind of widened up and colored in a deeper shade of gray this time around. Above his ears and at the side of his head, he had small vertical lines that went along in his air. And below his eyes were wrinkles spotted around, signifying his old age. His eyes were full of worry and concern and his lungs were struggling for air as he breathed in and out with his mouth and nostrils.

"Everything's fine professor. There was just a 'little accident' involved." She assured the exhausted old man, applying completely intended sarcasm in the last few words by emphasizing its point a bit. She had completely forgotten to close the door during the time she was teasing her son to bits and tried her very best to make him confide.

"Well… That's good… to hear…" The man said whilst panting to regain air back into his lungs as he wiped the sweat from his wrinkled brow with his forearm and stood up on his two feet to straighten his posture and look at the surroundings in the house.

"So professor, why were you exhausted and sweating considerably? You look like you ran a marathon or something like that!" She exclaimed as she let out stifled giggles in front of the old man, doing it in a rather impolite, but non-offensive way.

The man just sweat dropped at the mother's attitude. But it wasn't identifiable if he really produced a dash of water due to the woman's naivety or just because he was still exhausted and sweating. "Well, I ran here as fast as my legs could carry me after hearing a large noise coming straight from your house. You could even hear it from a few blocks away." The professor explained as he looked at the woman in front of her and gave her a smile. The corner of his eyes moved onto the kitchen as he could see the entrance a few feet away from him. "So has Mimey come back from vacation yet?" He asked, trying to lighten up his exhaustion and force a change from the woman's straight-forward way of thinking, however even he had to admit that sometimes she can be a bit manipulative and deceiving to get what she wants, from a person especially.

"Yes, in fact she came back a while ago. She was kinda the one who caused the accident." She answered as she beamed a warm, but nervous smile right back at the man and replied to his inquiry.

"So early? I guess that's just her behavior." He said as he let out a chuckle in response to the clown's recent short-coming. The woman joined in as well and they both hoped that the barrier Pokemon wouldn't hear about them passing on jokes about her, or she would flip and get offended by the insult. Luckily, the Mr. Mime was still in the kitchen, doing who knows what?

The boy however, just stood silent as he watched the scene unfold before him. He wanted to make his presence know to the old man so he interrupted their chuckle and giggles by clearing his throat and looked at the professor straight in the eyes. He could see that the man cringed back a bit upon noticing the trainer before him.

"So professor?" He called out to make himself more known to the man before him. However, he must really thank him dearly for getting him out of that tight situation of a crazy interrogation his mother was trialing him to. "It's nice to see you again after so long. How've you been doing?" He said as he took in every detail of the man, from his gray hair down to his brown shoes. Hasn't changed much at all, well except for growing more older at age.

When the man saw him, he took in a quick look at his clothing and somehow they seemed…familiar. However, he could analyze it as unidentifiable, for now at least. He also tried to steal a glance at his face and noticed his expression, causing him to cringe again upon looking at his dull grey eyes. But the man couldn't recognize him at all, although he had a very strong suspicion after eyeing the Pikachu on the couch and the messy black hair sticking out from his head, looking at the professor intently with a bright smile on his face, however containing the same dull grey eyes.

"And who might this young gentleman be?" He asked professionally and formally as it was his turn to clear his throat, but just because of his old age. He now started deep into the eyes of the young trainer before him bravely and tried his best to take out his identity and see who this stranger really was without asking, just relying on plain guesses. But of course, he came up with no answer, just a strong suspicion. He however didn't want to humiliate himself by clearing out that suspicion in front of the boy and leave him in a daze. He could also notice from the corner of his eyes that the woman she was talking to before, now took a seat on one of the couches and beamed a smile as she watched the conversation unfold.

The boy grew out that smirk on his face again as he flashed it to the old man, leaving him confused and in a daze. A few words brightened out in his mind as he was thinking on how to give out a mischievous statement that will confuse the professor even further by composing a sentence in his head. "A few words… I love my Pikachu dearly." He said out in form of a type of poetry as he walked over to the couch he was sitting in before and slouched down on it to hold the photo frame and Pikachu once again. Poetry. Was it really even necessary to confuse them by using poetry?

"Pika!" He called out as he waved his chubby little paws back and forth to greet the professor he so knew for a very long time.

But just at that little sentence, the professor's mouth went wide along with his eyes opening up broadly as realization hit him hard in the head. Just by that single sentence, or imperfect form of poetry, mentioning the name of the species of the yellow electric mouse with a lightning bolt tail and how he loved his one so much, did he understand it all and broke the secret to who he really was. He was so dazed that he couldn't even notice the mouse waving frantically to try and get his attention.

"No, it can't be…" The professor stuttered in utter shock over finding out who the boy really is. But how is he here? And what is he even here to begin with? Wasn't he supposed to be living a life of complete training in seclusion? Most imporantly, wasn't he supposed to be dead?

"Yes it can professor, yet it can…" The boy whispered slightly, amused at seeing the old man's complete shock in his identity and how he even managed to decipher the sentence and find the hidden code within. To say the truth, he was also a bit surprised at the mind of the old man but then again, he's one of the most famous Pokemon authorities. Stealing a peek, he could see his mother still smiling, finding the scene fascinating to her entertainment and complete amusement at the professor's sudden reaction and change of expression every now and then. His smirk never faded away or even lightened up a bit to the least, it was still very wide and full of complete slyness as he simply watched on, waiting for what's next.

**To be continued...**

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><p><strong>Well that's the end of this chapter and the next chapter will be commencing soon enough. Note: Pikachu is a male and is a female, simple enough unless you didn't get it before. You saw in this chapter that I haven't made Ash turn into a complete jerk and made him show some forms of feelings and emotions, although he rarely shows his emotional side. Feel free to leave out your reviews, ideas, feedback's, opinions, criticism or whatever. Please don't leave flames against the shipping, unless you're brave enough to be hated by the AdvanceShipping community ;p Well, thanks for reading and hope you leave a review if you got the time :)<strong>

**Drink syrup! :)**


	3. Chapter 3 Preview

**Here is a little preview of Chapter 3 to keep you guys entertained for a while. The reason I did this was to cover up for my break from writing and getting rid of mini writers block, and to let everyone dwell in the suspense here for fun. Chapter 3 is in progress and should be out soon enough, probably by the end of this week. So enjoy this little preview :)**

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><p><strong><span>The Legend of 'Ash' - Chapter 3 Preview<span>  
><strong>

"Ahem." The other girl said audibly as she cleared her throat in order for her presence to be known and sounded. The two of them immediately turned their direction so their eyes were fixated upon the girl's, a degree of slight provocation enthralling from both of their eyes, making the girl quail back on the bed a bit as a nervous light flashed in her azure eyes when she looked at both of them in the eyes. "You might want to do this stuff in private?" She advised the two of them wisely, trying in the best manner not to make them get more frustrated over disrupting their 'private' time. "Believe me; I learned it the hard way." She managed to mumbled that last part quietly to herself in success, or so she thought as her mind flashed back to a very embarrassing situation forthwith. Well, that managed to cause her cheeks to heat up a bit and glow in a faint shade of red, although still visible to everyone.

"Huh? What do you mean 'hard way'?" The other young girl inquired naively to her junior over the confusing term she blurted out on accident. Her fault…

An eerie and queer atmosphere managed to fill the void of the room straight away at the mention of the inquiry, for the one being questioned of course. She really had to practice on doing stuff like this more 'professionally', she just keeps on blurting out too much secrets into the side of revelation.

"Ummm… Nothing! Nothing at all!" She quickly tried to cover up for her blatant slip up as she frantically waved her hands in front of her face and gave out a short nervous laugh, the red on her face not fading away at all, in fact, deepening due to the walls of embarrassment surrounding her and she desperately needed an escape.

"Why are you blushing then?" The young green-haired boy asked cunningly with a sly grin on his face as he was trying to be inquisitive about the subject and not let it drop THAT easily.

"Yea Dawn, why are you blushing, huh?" The brown-haired asked in the same sly manner, a mischievous grin sprouting on her face as well and her eyes being squinted a bit in an impish fashion. She had that persevered attitude as well and she wanted to hear it in more 'detail'.

The girl was now completely overthrown with inquires, something she loved to do but didn't like at all to get into. Her face brightened EVEN more as she gulped hard, thinking of a way to counter the questions thrown at her efficiently.

"Umm… Blushing? Blushing? I'm not blushing at all! Probably getting a fever from the change in season, but nothing to worry about!" She reassured them anxiously with a big, fake nervous smile that she had so hoped had managed to make the two of them buy it, using her improved signature catchphrase, as both of her hands fell down from being frantically waved in the air and down on top of her lap.

Well, she was finally getting a taste of her own medicine, and it tasted bitter. All those years of tense situations with countless inquires she's been throwing over the year to her close friends have managed to all been inversed on to her side, just on the account of a single day.

"Right…" The two of them said sarcastically in unison, obvious to the prevarication their blue-haired friend wants them to buy so naively, just like the way she hopes so. Unfortunately, and fortunately for her, the duo had merely stopped in their track of their suspicion before it gets into their heads and starts making their friend seemingly uncomfortable into a whole new level.

**To be continued...  
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><p><strong>Nothing really to say, but...<strong>

**Drink syrup! ^^**


	4. Chapter 3

**Sorry if this chapter took too long. But then again, this was the longest chapter I wrote, standing at over 16000 words. And you know the funny thing? This was originally designed to be the shortest chapter yet written by me, but I guess that didn't work out since my head came up with tons of ideas for this chapter and further ones as well :D And to add to the predicament is that I was on break for about 4-5 days after updating a previous chapter, and when I came back to writing, I sorta had a mini-writer's block... Exams are coming up within a few more weeks so expect me to be busy or delayed from writing, but I'll try to update at least one more chapter before the exams; but then again, that may not work as well... But after the exams, I'll get back to the normal schedule. And the problem here is that I may edit this chapter by taking some scenes and implanting it in the next chapter, so my head is busy as well with the decision of if I revealed too much.**

**So please enjoy reading this chapter and please, please leave a review. I never even thought I would get this much reviews and thanks to all of the people who have been reading and reviewing. So without further blabbering... Enjoy! :)**

**Warning: Many loyal and trusty AdvanceShipper's may not like this chapter, but PLEASE don't kill me! I promise you that AdvanceShipping will come later on, maybe...**

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><p><strong><span>The Legend of 'Ash' - Chapter 3<span>**

Our scene shifts and we see a nice bedroom painted in a lighter shade of pink hue. Furniture's side by side or just across each other in the room, such as a bed, side table, closet, small desk and chair and a television set. Multiple decorations displayed to show-off achievements and make the room seem more splendid from the outside. Nice little window situated beside the side table, which was next to the bed, showing the magnificence of the night velvety blanket spread across the sky with bright twinkles appearing every now and often; and in addition, a circular chunk of white rock casting off a serene and peaceful aura with a romantic atmosphere surrounding the area underneath. But the situation above there wasn't as calm and relaxing as the situation down here in the room. Although, anyone should be content with living in or owning this room, reason to the huge space inside it, giving it quite some room to store 'junk'; except that the room was tidy and neatly cleaned with no visible speck of dust anywhere. Well, a very young and fair girl owned this room, obvious by the pink everywhere and the clearly visible photos of herself and her friends displayed on top of the side table along with ribbons with gold medallions hung up above the TV set, proudly showing her achievements over the years of her career. And inside the room, there were three figures overall, all three of them sitting beside each other on the bed while two of them were looking at the young girl in the middle, who so happens to be the one who lives in this room.

"What do you two want now?" The young girl in the middle said in a very depressed manner, her soft voice could be heard containing a pinch of 'whining' as well as a tad of frustration. Her head was bent low along with her shoulders, facing the ground and making her eyes not visible to the second dimensional world, well unless you look from under. Beside her were two more figures, both young like herself and one was a boy while the other one was a girl, and behind her was a old photo frame, containing a photograph inside of it; but, the photo wasn't visible since it was face down on the bed. Her mood? Down in the dumps probably.

"It's almost time..." The girl beside her said, her voice more calmer and pleasant in approaching a situation like currently. She sneaked in her arm to the young girl beside her and began to pat her slouched back gently and tenderly, as if trying to comfort her about something.

"Have you finished packing?" The boy said this time around, rasp and arrogant but has his kind and caring side as well. He moved one of his arm around the back of the girl beside her, making sure not to intercept with the other girl's arm, and gently pulled her by the waist and made her come closer to him until their bodies touched. It could be described as an embrace, lovers embrace.

"Yeah, it's finished; but I'm not really in the mood to go right now." The same voice from the young girl replied stubbornly as she glanced down at her bare feet touching the wooden floor. Her head shifted upwards and to the side until it was resting on top of the boy's shoulder, seeking warmth and comfort from him over a matter as she responded to the embrace by moving both her arms around the boy's stomach and held him tightly, breaking the other girl's consolation in the process. How rarely had she been this comforted with the feeling of warmth wash over her body?

The other girl, seeing the two in a warm hug, just let go of her hand without the slightest hesitation as she smiled brightly at the comforting and touching scene before her. She didn't want to ruin the moment at all so she backed away from the two 'lover's' side and over to one corner of the bed slightly so no disturbances were made. But as she did so, her eyes managed to steal a peek at something interesting on the bed as her eyes widened in curiosity and surprise, mostly curios as to what it was and partially surprised to the item beside it.

The boy moved his head down and kissed the forehead of the girl gently, making the girl blush slightly at the process, before laying his head on top of the girl's head, not wanting to break the embrace anytime soon. His free hand moved over and loosened the grip from one of the girl's arms as it fell down on his lap. The girl could be said, quite surprised at the action as she tensed up a bit. Why was he trying to break the hug so quickly? But that wasn't on the mind of the young boy; he was trying to make the moment seem sweeter. He picked the girl's pale hand up gently to touch it and gave it a light squeeze and played with it a bit before clasping it shut together with his own hand.

"We'll be late if we can't catch the ship. And Kanto is a far away region so this is probably the last ferry heading off into the Kanto region before tomorrow. Plus, I heard that the grand opening ceremony date had changed from day after tomorrow to tomorrow on such short notice." The boy replied gently as he clenched his eyes shut and sniffed the aromatic scent of the girl's hair with his nose. It had a sort of mysteriously calm yet invigorating scent to it.

The girl cringed back a bit and let go off the embrace after hearing the word 'Kanto'. However, their hands were still clasped and locked together as the boy reluctantly refused to let her hand slip, even after her sudden shock. Unfortunately, that didn't help stop the memories from the past invade and flood into her mind. And it didn't even take the boy beside her to deduce as to what was going on with her and what her mind was focused on. The pressure and tension was starting to take over her body and replace the warmth and comfort, and as a desperate attempt, she squeezed the boy's hand even harder, earning a slight yelp of surprise from the boy himself. But knowing what she's going through, he just shrugged it off normally and looked deep into her sapphire eyes.

However, the other young girl hadn't noticed their actions at all; she was too busy intently keeping her focus on what she saw on top of the bed. And after making a few guesses, she finally came to a conclusion as to what the picture showed; face down and hidden on top of the pink sheet with a rusty old frame surrounding it. She also looked at the ribbon beside of the picture frame as well. It had a golden centerpiece with strips of pink and white flowing off from all four corners of the medallion. All the other ribbons in the room may seem like they were losing their shine, brightness, luster and value but this one was not even close to being scratched slightly in the least. Seems this one had been treated and token care in a very special and gentle manner of degree. The gold centerpiece shined a bit for a faint moment, due to the light from the light bulbs causing it to refract, and for a brief moment, the eyes of the second young girl seemed to follow and sparkle a bit as she looked at her reflection in the ribbon's gold. A small smile crept up her face after looking at its shine and brightness, and also at her own reflection and making sure her hair wasn't messed up for she always needed to keep her blue hair perfect. But she knew it would be best to not bring back the first young girl into this subject. Let her blend into it naturally rather than reminding her, because that would only force her mind to be flooded by memories of a wonderful past. When she just sinks into it naturally, her mind is doing it on its own free will and she seems less tense or depressed at that moment while she reminisces those glorious times of her life.

The boy pulled the sapphire-eyed girl even closer to him with his other arm until they were back where they started; their distance being furthered after the girl cringed back in astonishment. And as he did so, he shuttered his eyes close and lowered his face a little until his head was in the same level with the girl's heads, himself being a little taller than her at height, and closed the distance between the two of them even quicker by locking his smooth lips with her soft and warm ones, pulling her into a warm kiss. But it was just a plain and sweet one, no tongues touching each other and playing around wildly or mouths opening to allow quick and easy access for the movements of the two tongues, making the kiss more passionate and deep. No, it was just a normal, sweet and innocent kiss represented by the two lovers. The other girl's eyes grew big at what was happening before her, but she shook it off eventually and watched the beautiful scene of two people kissing and showing their love for each other, well the boy for the most part. He then moved the hand that was clasped with the girl's hand to his side, breaking the lock in the process; but only for him to make it lean in again and wrap both arms around the girl's waist.

The girl who was being kissed was taken aback slightly by the boy's slick move, but she just soaked it in by closing her eyelids and wrapping her arms around the boy's neck, returning to the favor. Of course, they knew they couldn't start a make out session here, for the other girl was here, watching them intently with a smile on her face or it could turn into something bigger and more passionate which would cause this story to become something over the T rating? Well it can still be kept under the T rating, switching the scene at the first sign will be considered the solution; but fortunately, that won't be the case in the scenario here.

Moments after, they broke the sweet embrace after the girl pulled back her body from the boy's and looked deeply into his emerald eyes, producing a sense of cockiness and arrogance a, but lying deep within was actually a warm and caring side. She smiled brightly at his way on how he could console herself, and seems as if the boy beat the other girl to the punch, but she was probably more focused with other things at that second. The boy could only smile back in response to see the girl cheered up from the brief moment of the previous subject. In his mind, he was flattering himself continuously for his intelligence and quick thinking; but the main point was that he could be relieved over seeing the girl in her usual cheery mood. And all it took was a simple and plain kiss.

It was seeming as though they were going to be locked in a kiss again, this time the girl proving it by leaning closer to his face, but that was before a noise was sent to interrupt their romantic moment.

"Ahem." The other girl said audibly as she cleared her throat in order for her presence to be known and sounded. The two of them immediately turned their direction so their eyes were fixated upon the girl's, a degree of slight provocation enthralling from both of their eyes, making the girl quail back on the bed a bit as a nervous light flashed in her azure eyes when she looked at both of them in the eyes. "You might want to do this stuff in private?" She advised the two of them wisely, trying in the best manner not to make them get more frustrated over disrupting their 'private' time. "Believe me; I learned it the hard way." She managed to mumbled that last part quietly to herself in success, or so she thought as her mind flashed back to a very embarrassing situation forthwith. Well, that managed to cause her cheeks to heat up a bit and glow in a faint shade of red, although still visible to everyone.

"Huh? What do you mean 'hard way'?" The other young girl inquired naively to her junior over the confusing term she blurted out on accident. Her fault…

An eerie and queer atmosphere managed to fill the void of the room straight away at the mention of the inquiry, for the one being questioned of course. She really had to practice on doing stuff like this more 'professionally', she just keeps on blurting out too much secrets into the side of revelation.

"Ummm… Nothing! Nothing at all!" She quickly tried to cover up for her blatant slip up as she frantically waved her hands in front of her face and gave out a short nervous laugh, the red on her face not fading away at all, in fact, deepening due to the walls of embarrassment surrounding her and she desperately needed an escape.

"Why are you blushing then?" The young green-haired boy asked cunningly with a sly grin on his face as he was trying to be inquisitive about the subject and not let it drop THAT easily.

"Yea Dawn, why are you blushing, huh?" The brown-haired asked in the same sly manner, a mischievous grin sprouting on her face as well and her eyes being squinted a bit in an impish fashion. She had that persevered attitude as well and she wanted to hear it in more 'detail'.

The girl was now completely overthrown with inquires, something she loved to do but didn't like at all to get into. Her face brightened EVEN more as she gulped hard, thinking of a way to counter the questions thrown at her efficiently.

"Umm… Blushing? Blushing? I'm not blushing at all! Probably getting a fever from the change in season, but nothing to worry about!" She reassured them anxiously with a big, fake nervous smile that she had so hoped had managed to make the two of them buy it, using her improved signature catchphrase, as both of her hands fell down from being frantically waved in the air and down on top of her lap.

Well, she was finally getting a taste of her own medicine, and it tasted bitter. All those years of tense situations with countless inquires she's been throwing over the year to her close friends have managed to all been inversed on to her side, just on the account of a single day.

"Right…" The two of them said sarcastically in unison, obvious to the prevarication their blue-haired friend wants them to buy so naively, just like the way she hopes so. Unfortunately, and fortunately for her, the duo had merely stopped in their tracks for a while of their suspicion before it gets into their heads and starts making their friend seemingly uncomfortable into a whole new level. But don't worry, the fun never ends…

This pleasure could only cause the other girl to breathe out a sigh of relief at the sudden and unexpected halt of the 'assault'. Glad that the embarrassment contained there was over for a short period and the topic was given a chance to change briefly before returning, she took the opportunity at the first strike.

"So…" She wondered off as she raised her left arm up and to her stomach level and made her eyes fixated upon her wrist. And wrapped around her wrist was a pink strap with lines of white flowing along with the pink at the middle of it. Above was a blank electronic screen that displayed the numbers, 9:30 PM, and white patches cornering the electronic screen. "Guess we have around an hour more to go before the ship leaves, the port in Route 104 being right next to the city. So it'll probably take some time before we reach there actually. Although we have a few more minutes to ourselves, so what do you want to do now?" She explained most of the details and enquired about the last part, not knowing what to do herself. Although the only thing that mattered to her currently was catching their so-called ship and making sure she doesn't spill out more information on which are not supposed to be shared and be kept a private to herself.

"I don't know. I mean, I already stuffed myself with a delicious dinner a while ago and Max is probably playing with the Pokemon in the Gym since he already finished packing. There's nothing much to do now but wait." The brown-haired female spoke up quite quickly, forgetting about the fun she, and the boy beside her was having in their little game. Yeah yeah, to the back of the line, please!

The boy released an imaginary face-palm at the girl's attitude. Firstly, 'stuffed my self with a delicious dinner'? More like eat half of the whole meal her kind and caring mother had managed to prepare for all of them with so much time and effort. Wait, make that a third of forth from the whole cooking. Secondly, where was think before you speak? Well, it's too late to bring that up now without getting in an awkward situation. It didn't take long for him to basically shrug it off like that, believing that he can't stay mad at her forever like this over a stupid reason, because he loved her dearly of course.

Well, at least that would be able to put up a change in course of direction for the discussion held currently. 'That's a relief, but...Mmm... I think it's time for a bit of revenge...' She thought in her sneaky mind as a well-developed plot was clearening out in her mind, giggling to herself silently as to each outcome she could predict. And the glasses have just been shattered. Her face could be seen with a look of mischief as a smirk was growing from the edges of her lips and broadening at every second. Now it was time to show them on why they shouldn't push her at times persistently. The brown-haired girl's naivety managed to save the discomfiting situation back then for her and it would only seem fair to lessen the degree of the 'punishment' she had planned in mind for them. She may talk without thinking at times and blurt out many things often, similar to the other girl, but her ability to think quickly and counter anything was more than enough to make up for her flaw, or well, forceful habit.

"So you two, how far?" She asked directly to the 'love' duo in front of her, obviously hiding a deeper meaning somwhere inside there that only she had the answer to, for now at least.

"How far what?" The boy spoke up first, starting to get a big discomforted by the gloomy aura the girl was producing around her. Their job? Deciphering the code given to them, of course!

"You know... How far?" She asked straightforwardly again at the two of them, that big evil grin on her face never leaving for a second. The grin the sapphire-eyed girl and emerald-orbed boy had back then was nothing compared to the one of the blue-haired woman. Everyone knew her for this ability, and the people who would fall into the trap would walk out completely fluttered and bright red in the face. And seems as if her fishing net had just responded to a lively catch.

"How far what, Dawn?" The young girl asked naively, having no clue or whatsoever as to the whole meaning behind the illusion, that must be shattered so inconviniently.

Well, I guess we can address her by Dawn now, since that's we she's called by her friends. "Oh, don't tell me you don't know too." She sweatdropped and let out a sigh of disappointed at the cluelessness of the boy and girl. Well, she could understand the situation about the girl, but the boy? Tch tch, she expected a better performance from him. And true to her word, both of them had completely confused and puzzled look on their faces as they watched and eyed Dawn as if she had just fallen right out of the blue blanket of sky.

The boy now however, was starting to process in the hidden meaning and try and find out it's ambigous definition in a faster pace than the girl, who just gave Dawn a curios look added on with cocking her head to the side a bit in confusion. And seconds later, drops of sweat started to drip from the skin of the jade-haired boy as he came to what Dawn had hoped for from the both of them to understand properly on what she was trying to say. His skin had flared up into a light shade of red, quite visible. But, he shook his head and moved his eyes over from Dawn to the girl in front of her as she saw her curvy body from the back.

He had always admired her body figure, well almost every boy in the world would be mesmerized by her beauty, and not just her body but her light and fair face as well. To add in, her smooth long brown hair always flowed whenever there was a slight breeze passing by and her blue sapphire eyes always sparkled clearly just like the vast and deep ocean under some sort of light, and sometimes even in the darkness. Her body? Errmmm… Let's just say that her body was well-developed for her age when she was around 10 to 13 but as she started to grow older, it began to fit in and become more 'normal'; but she still had some 'features' from her rapid growth, even years later into the present. She was really popular and known by almost everyone, having accomplished her achievements would certainly not go unnoticed. Everyone in the world who knew of her considered her as a princess or an angel due to her natural beauty, completely unlike another certain someone we know who strikes fear into the hearts of people and is considered a huge legend.

And at that current moment, somewhere deep in Kanto, a young boy coughed out aloud and startled two figures in front of him, almost as if he had a sixth sense and he could perceive everything on the other side of the world; showing he had to completely disagree with the previous sentence somehow indirectly in form.

"Dawn, I'm not getting what you're saying at all. Could you please be a bit more specific?" The girl asked, completely oblivious to the presence of a sweaty and blushing boy behind her, due to her back being turned towards him and showing him her beautiful figure without her even noticing or paying attention to.

"Really May? You don't get it at all?" She asked rather annoyed. How come they had so much fun with her in ease while she was having a hard time, due to making sure the ones who are supposed to be disconcerted are receiving the message properly.

"I told you, I don-" She interrupted herself as a quick thought flashed in her mind forthwith, causing her cheeks to spark in a shade of crimson. Not good at all for them, for they were about to be doomed. Wait, they were probably doomed already. "Why would you think of something like that?" She exclaimed, feeling rather offended at Dawn's attempted remark as the double entendres had finally managed to reveal itself to her and it's second meaning.

Well, the message was able to be transferred indirectly with success. Now she wouldn't have to be so explicit in detail. "Just curiosity." She said simply as the mischief in the big grin was quickly replaced by a sweet and innocent smile. Conveying it, a success; now to just wait for the answer. "I wanted to know if you guys have went that far yet?" Her voice turning sweet and soft to show her vindication, success all over her face as she saw the two of them blushing deep red, the boy joining in as well to go crimson.

"N-n-no…" The girl stammered over her speech as her blushing grew dangerously intense. All the blood was plowing through her veins and arteries and directly sent to flood her bright face. Unhealthy would seem as the proper analysis in terms of medication and health. And where's the **Poke World Records **to register her record for 'hottest person in the world'? Or, most embarrassed would just do fine… This wasn't even seemingly possible for the average human being, or Pokemon even!

And guess who had joined her? Yes, it was the boy she fell in love with, being a bit far behind her in the competition. Although since he mostly has a cool and calm mind, he wasn't able to cope up with the girl in their little competition, falling back since his blood was able to move more freely and not directly sent through to his face. Ha, catch up Slowpoke!

"I know you're lying; you're blushing heavily…" The blunette corrected with one of her world class cheeky grins, herself going back to 'evil' mode. Her azure eyes being squinted from in an effort to appear even more intimidating and wicked to the poor duo in front of her. Being inquisitive was her profession and everyone remarked her well for that, some even praised her, due to fear of being caught in her fly trap that she sets up hidden. What a convenience! Well, no one escapes her power of manipulation and master puppetry if they dare challenge her at her own game. Of course, she would never plan on taking it too far and seriously, just a little fun made by joking around. What harm done?

"She's not lying…!" The boy interrupted, butting in to the extremely excruciating conversation at the process, save for Dawn of course, who was mildly enjoying her time. The red on his face could be seen going under the grasp of control slowly on and forward.

"And you say that Drew? Look at yourself; you're blushing deep red as well!" She exclaimed over them, finding the prospect of the two of them doing exactly what she was picturing in her mind as rather cute.

"FINE! The two of us did it! Happy? But please don't tell anyone about this!" She pleaded as she clasped her hands together to shut them tightly, fingers locked with each other, and acted in begging manner in front of Dawn, who was smirking to herself in a self-satisfied way over her recent victory and past achievements. Wow, did she have a lot of them in her trophy room!

The boy of green could be seen in a completely shocked expression. Did she just spill a secret only the two of them were supposed to keep? So much for partly reliable, but at least he could clearly understand the situation she was in, having been in it recently and experiencing the mental suffering and loss of composure in the mind. His blushing had managed to cease a bit, due to surprise, and after peering a bit to his left, he could see the brunette's red was fading away a bit. Too bad, **Poke World Records** had really missed a golden opportunity; although, with the help of Dawn again, is it very much possible to be repeatable at hand, bunch of lucky poor suckers…

"At such a young age already? Tch Tch… You two may as well get married already." The blunette made sounds of seeming disappointment, but she really wasn't trying to express it like that, in fact, she was even quite happy at that private announcement and tormented confession, in the defender's opinion; but not because of her recent success, but because of their state and happiness. And from the corner of her eyes, she could see that after the weights from their back were gone, only then had their deep blushes gone away. But at her last reference, they came back again, only lighter in shade this time around. "Don't worry though; you're secrets safe with me." She assured them as she switched back again to 'angel' mode and flashed one of the most brightest and reassuring smiles produced. She could clearly see that the brown-haired girl had instantly perked her head up and looked at her directly while the boy started staring directly at her, two of them giving her suspicious and uncomfortable looks. And although from the looks she may be getting made her seem like someone who wouldn't hold up to that promise, she was honestly planning on keeping it all to herself, unable to withstand seeing her two close friends in such an embarrassing situation in front of their other friends, constantly teasing and mocking them.

But all their friends couldn't help but feel happy for the brunette, even through their friendly jokes; happy that she managed to partially forgive and forget to move onwards. But she still didn't forget about everything that easily and her mind still gets haunted and attacked by old memories from the wonderful past.

"Thanks Dawn…" The girl uttered gratefully at her after seeing her pure and honest, bright smile that had suddenly lightened the room and casted away the doubts in the hearts of the boy and the girl. Even though they had their fair shares of teasing and mocking each other, the two girls were always best friends and very close, almost like sisters, helping each other out during their problems, time of needs or excruciating dilemmas. Dawn always tried her best to comfort her after the incident she was involved with four years ago, sensing the pain in the girl's heart and watching her with sorrow for the first few weeks of her heartbreak, she knew she had to at least try and help lighten up the girl's mood and spirit to cheer her up, and that had played to work on the field to some extent. And not only did Dawn support her, but all of her close friends and family as well. And this was one of the things that made the brunette filled with joy and feel grateful for, having such kind, caring and dear friends and family in her life was all that mattered to her.

"Yeah… We don't want big brash and cheeky grins following us everywhere along with a few teasing smirks, especially from a certain pervert…" The boy explained their current state of situation as a reference to a certain person, earning a big earnest grin from Dawn while the other girl just played along with a faint smile, able to barely signify their trust and belief in the young blue-haired girl.

"You guys worry way too much about stuff like this. You can surely trust me, right? No need to worry!" She exclaimed with her original signature catchphrase, which had somehow managed to become popular in the world over the occurring past few years.

"Yes, and in case you do…" The boy added, pausing for a bit as a devious smirk was painted right across his face. "…We'll spill that huge secret you've been burying all to yourself for quite some time. Right May?" He continued, giving off a fair and friendly warning in case everything gets jumbled up, but knowing of Dawn, he knew he could trust her well enough. She may spill out her own secrets accidently on impulse, but she tries her best to keep other people's secrets that she's been entrusted with locked up. Now that's called convenience and trust to the foremost.

The brunette only nodded her head in a slight response as to a positive answer to the question. Now her face wasn't being filled with deviousness like the boy, but she was just grinning inwardly, hiding it from the others. The reason? Well, she couldn't believe she actually confessed and blurted it out right from her mouth into the long held secret between the two lovers. Guess best friends do tend to have a lot in common, personality-wise, since they probably influence each other from their respective behaviors.

"R-right…" Was all Dawn could stutter out, shuddering a bit at the prospect as her cheeks heated up for the second time. Well, the main reason wasn't to protect her secret by keeping their secret, but to keep them in privacy and away from big ears of the public.

A light tap on the door was all it took for them to break away their current conversation and take a look at the door. There was tapping at first, and then knocking sounds replaced them and started to make the door shake slightly at the force applied from behind the door.

"Just come on in, we're not playing Truth or Dare or anything like that." The girl called out, audible and loud enough for whoever on the other side was to hear her voice. Her reaction being able to cause a light and stifled giggle from Dawn and a smile on the face of the boy, knowing of her, all too well behavior and loving all of it. And despite the few odds stuffed in there, he still loved her very closely.

And from the looks of it, well, more like the sounds of it, there was a huge sigh of depression from the other side as the doorknob clicked and the door was swung open, revealing a figure before them, quite tall for their appropriate age actually. After letting the door swing open fully, the person just waltzed into the room and look to his left and right frantically, searching for any signs of assumingly hidden traps.

The figure was young and tall, being a male. He had navy blue hair that was neatly combed on his face and the same colored eyes as well, having a energetic and cheerful spark, but with a touch of depression and exhaustion and as well. His eyes were shielded with thin glasses, protecting them from further damage to eyesight or just the ability to look nerdy is all. He was well clothed in a white liner half-sleeved t-shirt that had a red and white Pokeball logo and many cute and miniature faces of a vast variety of different Pokemon species. Over his t-shirt was a green full-sleeved jacket that hugged his entire upper body and assured warmth, small yellow and blue designs evidently visible all over there with a small badge-like design indented on his chest. He had black khaki pants on with tons of pockets, ensuring uttermost convenience and style. His body figure was well muscled and his height seemed to be about a little taller than average for his age, well not exactly… Ignoring that, average is good enough for now.

"Will you stop overreacting Max?" The girl cried out in annoyance as she saw the younger boy before her, still not letting his guard slip for a minute. But after her cry, he was able to snap out of his crazy antics and give the place a 'safe and secure' rating, for now at least…

Dawn and the emerald boy looked at him, needing to power to think for the ability to recognize the younger boy before them. Max, was it? They both kicked-back and saw what he had to exchange or notify, but still able to spring up and take action any moment at the first sign of a bickering quarrel or fight between the brunette and the young boy.

"Huh?" He shook his head to get weird thoughts out of his head and halt his crazy antics. And after doing that, he was met in the eye by a glistening ocean of sapphire. And he could tell who it without looking at their face, just the eyes were enough for recognition from the boy. "Oh, right May, I finished clearing up at the Gym and packing my suitcase. We're all ready to go now, since the ship is about to leave in half-an-hour. I'll meet you downstairs then." He explained as quickly and understandably as possible as he rushed out of the door within less than a second, forgetting to close the door behind as usual.

The sapphire-eyed girl just sighed at his behavior, a few years ago he acted like a little kid who would always tease her, but now he's grown up so quickly that he has to take a considerable amount of weight of responsibility on his back. He did although have time for teasing her, just like he used to before and they both never got bored of it. It was always an enjoyment for him to tease her like a little boy again, but that being said, the aftermaths wouldn't result in his usual cheery mood to be enabled. The girl would always get embarrassed in front of their friends by the young boy, causing her temper to rise and smack him hard in the head as to teach him a lesson and knock some sense into him. But whatever he did to embarrass her so badly, she still loved that little boy very dearly. After all, she's was his bigger sister and that was her job; and likewise, he was her younger brother and that was all part of his work as well. The love they shared as siblings would result in their bond to be unbreakable. And recently, she was able to trust him into confiding and telling some of her biggest secrets; some she hadn't even discussed or went over with her own parents or close friends, but just her little brother. And if it was something critical or important, he would completely understand everything and without hesitation, try to help her with the best he possibly could. Of course he couldn't help but playfully tease her slightly at some of the more 'embarrassing' ones, resulting in a beating for himself or a very red sister to start with. But she knew some secrets were better kept locked up in her own mind and not to be discussed with anyone, for they were either too embarrassing or serious, and she didn't want everyone to be worried about her. Long ago, it would have been Max who had to come to his sister for help and guidance, but now it looks like she's the one who's coming to her little brother for divulgence and support. He had really grown up from an obnoxious and immature 7 year old boy to a responsible man who is able to take care of himself along with his family, although he had a little bit of his juvenile and childish traits still with him, but we can't really blame him for that since he's still in the teenage part of his life.

"That boy… He really did grow up, and quite quickly also. I never even thought he could do that…" She sweat dropped a bit at his rush and hurry to get to their boat, but soon sighed with a faint smile on her face, seeing the impossible become possible enough to happen in reality.

"Well May, we should really get going now." The boy beside her informed her as he turned his head to the right and saw the window a bit farther ahead then the bed. Seeing white flashes of sparking little lights twinkling every now and then in the sky like little diamonds and a lustrous glow from a white crescent circle hung up in the sky, producing streaks of white and fading light being casted downwards from it. The velvet sky above was enshrouded in a invisible mist from the overcasts up above, but the light up there was all sparkling and shining in the darkness of the night, creating a very beautiful and breathtaking, natural scenario. And before he could so much as even deduce the time by viewing the outside, he was completely mesmerized by the beauty of nature, being so tranquil and serene in the cold and black darkness of the night. But that was what made dusk the most beautiful time of the day.

Dawn and the brunette could only give the boy a confused and weird look, seeing as though he seemed to be spaced-out, since he was just looking outside like a mindless zombie, ignoring everything around him and keeping his eyes glued to the scene outside as he watched it intently. Now what was the girl's name again? May, right? She had took action by trying to snap the boy out of his gaze with a snap from her fingers. Didn't work. She sighed inwardly at the boy's behavior and spoke up. "Drew? You're spacing out aga-" But that was before she turned her head slightly to see what the boy was so amused about, and seeing the first glace of it, she was completely hypnotized as well. 'So this was why he was so lost?' Was what May was saying inside of her repeatedly, but her eyes didn't move at all from the scene in front.

Dawn just sweat dropped at the behavior of the two of them and the change of mind for the recent 'recruit', who was spacing-out intently and watching in the sky with awe all over her pretty face. She looked at her watch again, (which was made by the Poketch company; promotional campaign! Just call 8432-5313-1246 to get your very own free Poketch watch! Ahem, terms and conditions apply for users with mental disability or lack of cash, but there are other ways to make up for that flaw… And it would be best to discuss of that in private, so give us a call and get your own free watch! Warning: Guarantees do not apply under any condition and we are not responsibly for any losses or missing parts. Wait till they see what happens to it after a few days…), and could see the numbers, 10:00 PM, blinking and disappearing for a moment to appear right again at another. She almost even jumped off the bed for a minute at how long they had been talking with each other, spilling secrets and teasing each other for them. Wow, time had really flown by quickly without notice. After her little surprise, she turned over to see the two of her friends, and saw they were completely unaffected by her sudden movement. She sighed again, what are they looking at that's so special? She followed their eyes and turned to look at the window, and at the moment she did so and saw the outside, she too just went into a deep trance, like her friends; attracted by the beautiful view of nature. Now it was all a competition to see who could snap out of their amusement and awe at first.

Fortunately, the green-haired boy was the one who won the race. And where exactly was his reward now? He shook his head to the left and right a little, to clear his head and stay focused. And as his eyes wandered around, he could see that both of his friend's have fallen under the charm as well. He let out a light chuckle at the look on their faces, how carefree and oblivious were they. Was he really looking that foolish? And he tried the exact same thing the brunette tried at him before; he raised his arms up, moved it between the ears of his two friends and snapped his fingers around their earshot. No response. He jumped out of the bed and walked over until he was right in front of them.

"May? Dawn?" He called out as he waved both his hands frantically before the faces of his two friends, as an attempt to snap them out of their gazes. For a while, it looked like their minds were impenetrable and there wasn't a way that these two could be snapped out from their respective trances. But soon enough, the effect started to sink in and the two of shook their heads, much like the boy was after being brought back into reality. And after that was over, they have seemed too returned to 'normal'. Fact is, we don't even know what type of normality is being talked about here.

"Beautiful, right…?" May asked her friends as she started at the view again, this time in a more self-controlled manner.

Now his name was what again? Drew? He could only watch May stare at the sky dreamily from the window, not even noticing his gaze towards her as he was standing right beside where she was sitting; but that didn't block the terrific view however. And he was once again mesmerized by beauty, but this time, beauty of the girl that is. She just looked so adorable and cute and he was glad to have someone like her. "It definitely is… but nothing compared to you…" He muttered, hoping no one had heard his silent compliment.

May's cheeks had started to heat up considerably upon hearing the silent remark from the boy she loved. He had always complimented her every once in an often and always acted as a true gentleman towards her, being sweet, caring, kind and gentle. And it took a while for her cheeks to turn pale again, the effect of the weather finally catching up to her; her eyes were slightly broken from staring at the window as she moved her sight and slightly traced the boy until she moved up to look at his face, seeing a warm smile flashed at her, causing her to smile warmly back at the boy as well.

"All right you two, let's go and catch our ferry instead of starting another make-out session here." Chimed in the voice of Dawn, interrupting their visual connection as she stood up from the bed and walked over to the door, standing by the doorframe currently.

The two of them started to get in the face again, blushing at almost every remark or reference about the two of them. How many times did they even blush today? Ignoring that fact, Drew had reached out his hand and offered it for May to take it, and she didn't even hesitate as she took it. He could feel her warm hand in his, loving the sensation of it. He pulled her up gently and began walking over with her to the door, gesturing Dawn to go on ahead without them with his head, which she did with a sigh as she was seen disappearing from the room after walking past the doorframe. After he could see that she was gone, he held May even closer to his body as they walked together. After passing the door, she let go off herself for a minute as she went back inside to turn off the lights. And that didn't take long to do as she appeared right before the boy again. And as the boy was going to hold her in a loving embrace again, she backed away slightly this time around.

"Ummm… Drew, it would be better to do this when at the comfort of privacy. Mom and Dad will go on rambling about 'our future together' and proudly stating 'how much I've grown up' while Max will start running around the house, teasing me by yelling stuff you don't even want to hear." She explained to the boy with a nervous smile, earning a slight nod from him.

"Right, its ok May. I understand…" He said as he smiled at her again and started to walk ahead of her, down the dark hallway of the floor and to the visible set of stairs leading to the first floor of the house. And in a moment, he could be seen disappearing from within the eyesight of the girl. And if one were to look deep enough, a bit of disappointment was visible in his voice over hearing of the girl's uncomfortable situation involving her family.

'I think he took it the wrong way.' She said with a look of remorse and compassion on her face as her eyes scanned the area around the hallway.

The hallway was dark and quite long, composed of wooden sets of floor tiles. From where she was standing, she could see the wooden door to another room right in front of her as well as one adjacent to her own one. And if one were to look a bit farther ahead to the left, there was another door to yet another room, which could be possibly deduced as the bathroom while the other one's were probably bedrooms for the entire family, one for her parents and one for her little brother Max.

She ignored the fact of complete darkness surrounding her sight as she walked on towards the direction of the stairs; her feet making pounding noises with each step on the wooden floor that can be heard as she waddled. And as the bright light from downstairs encompassed her face and she was about to take her first step down the stair, something hit her very hard on the head, not literally, as she remembered something that should never be forgotten.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" Her voice echoed throughout the dark hallway and down the stairs to the first story of the big house, alerting the people downstairs in a rather terrifying and unsuspecting manner.

And in the blink of an eye, she practically traced the speed of light by disappearing in the only matter of a mere second; rushing back to her room anxiously in a speed that would put an Arcanine into an extreme fit or amount of dishonor and shame, causing it to lose its reputation as a 'Legendary Myth', making said Pokemon release a scorching hot Flamethrower upon people who would mock it for how it got its former complimentary name thoroughly in pure frustration and annoyance.

And as she opened and swept past the door, she immediately rushed over to the wooden side table. Seeing a few pictures of herself there, along with a small yellow pack and other useless junk that cannot even be decipher, or yet alone, explained. She ignored the rest of the things she owned and put atop there for display and just grabbed the yellow fanny pack before rushing to the other side of the room, where the desk and chair set was along with the held fashion, but convenience accessory in her hand. And upon the desk, there was a light, yellow shoulder bag and that had a place of opening at the middle of it. Along with that item, there was a white sunhat atop of the wooden surface of the table, sitting proudly atop with a thin red streak that was bordered around the bottom of the actual hat and above 'disc' of the hat, circling around the white of the hat with a new color. And in addition to the new color, there was a semi-circle logo that extended from above the line of red; and in the middle of the red semi-circle was cut into the shape of another semi-circle, this time showing the distant white inside of it; all in all, and to make things more clarifying and easy to grasp the understand, it was the half of a Pokeball sort of logo, or design to be more specific. And strangely enough, the light from the room was focused upon the hat, sending shimmering rays down on it, causing it to have a magnificent and sparkling aura around it, showing its value in the stores of fashion.

At first, she had seemed to ignore the glamorous item right in front of her. She put the yellow fanny pack on top and proceeded to unzip it, taking out a handful, or 5 to be more exact, red and white spheres along with a small button in the middle; which are modernly known as Pokeballs, the gadget everyone uses for the convenience of catching and trading Pokemon, inside of them are the Pokemon stored themselves; but no one, except for the Pokemon who had made its secondary home and temporary place of rest there, knows what's inside of them. Mysteries lurking within every corner of the world. Unzipping the shoulder bag laid atop of the desk, she decided to grab the handful of Pokeballs and transfer it to that bag. Closing the zipper for both accessories, she swung the yellow bag over her shoulders while the mini pack was ignored blatantly. But, it was getting too old for her. She's used that for the past few years and she needed a change in the direction of style. And thus, the new yellow bag was bought recently. Her hands then wondered over to the white sunhat, grabbing it with her fingers and neatly placing it on top of her head. Bandanas were getting too old also anyways, and she's been wearing those since the start of her own journey. Well as told before, a change in appearance was needed for her. But looks and style wasn't the only thing she was grasping for in a change of clothes, there was something else as well. But alas, it cannot be revealed in this chapter, but in later chapters. And as she placed the hat atop of her head, she had managed to touch her smooth and silky brown hair. She had decided to change her hairstyle as well and grow it long this time, replacing the upside down V shape she used to have it in tied around with a bandana, resulting in her upper forehead being slightly covered and the sides of her cheek touching with two tangles of hair that went down up to her shoulders. But that was in the past, now her brown hair had managed to gone mid-way down her back, passing her chest and reaching slightly mid-way over to her waist, having spikes at the end of her hair. And as an improvement from her old hair style, fringes of hair bent down from the side of her face and until her shoulder, although this time they were straighter and flowed down elegantly rather than being bent and curled, thus breaking the V shape. And from the root of where the hair flowed down the sides of her face, stuck out from the sunhat were three pointy spiked small edges of hair on both sides of her head. She had really grown her hair long; probably having the longest hair out of all her friends. Giving a try at the new hairstyle, she liked it and found it much better than her previous one, also much cuter and attractive in her opinion and some of her friend's as well.

After setting her hat straight on top of her smooth hair and swinging her yellow bag over her slim shoulders, she waddled back across the room with the fanny pack in her arms. Upon destination, she placed the fanny pack back on top of the side table in a hurry and tried to walk out of the room again, although this time in a faster pace than before. But before she could do that, she was hit in the head, yet again.

She turned around and walked back over to her bed, sitting down a bit on the bed and stretching her arms out to make a grab for something. After searching and wondering for a while with her hands, her fist clenched shut as she retracted one of her arms, signifying that she had gotten what she was looking for. As one of her arms returned back to her body, the other one went into seek as it squiggled and wiggled a bit on top of the bed until it got hold of something solid, in the shape of an rectangle and rusty and old, as it was pulled back to the girl. It was the photo frame from earlier, the one she held atop and looked at intently while looking at the past flow right before her.

She wriggled the shoulder bag out from its current position until it came out from the girl's arms, her hand catching it in the process and putting it on top of her lap. She unzipped it and stuffed the photo inside of it, carefully making sure it didn't get spoiled along with the other items inside of there. And after that was done, she zipped it back again and placed it on top of her bed. Her other hand still was clenched shut with the small item inside of it, not letting it become revealed, for now at least…

Well it didn't take long for her to open the grasp from her hand, unveiling the hidden item inside to the outside world. Although, most must have guessed correctly by now on what the item was. It was the same thing that gave her pictures of all the good times she has had as wonderful memories, the same thing that enlightened her heart with joy at times or crushed her heart with sorrow at other times; and most importantly, the same thing that was the only thing left that reminded her of the person she loved so much, and yet she missed him with her heart dearly. It was half of a Pokemon Contest ribbon, the only ribbon that mattered to her exactly. A golden centerpiece cut in half, with ribbons and pink and white emerging from it from the two sides of the top and bottom. And there hasn't even gone a day without her praying for his return. Most of her friends had learned to move on from the painful encounter slowly. And although most of them have moved on, they still couldn't deny the fact that they all missed him and they wanted him back. Only a few have had troubles dwelling in the past and getting out from it, and she was one of those people. But, she knew she had to stay strong and calm; for her friends, for her family and for _him…_

She sighed in depression after looking at her reflection in it, her blue eyes sparkling from being refracted by the ray of light. And from the image of her face being reflected slightly in a golden tint, she could see small droplets of water starting to fall down from her eyes slowly and into the carpet beneath, while some had fallen directly on her bed. She was crying…

Hot tears quickly streamed down her face and replaced old, worn-out ones. She closed her eyes tightly and clenched shut the hand she was holding the ribbon it. She moved that hand over until it was in contact with her chest, or more specifically, her heart from where her hand was settled. She loosened the grip from her hand and placed it against her heart, her palm being wide open with fingers stretched as she could feel the object within her hand, the support from her body hindering the ribbon from falling.

"Dawn… Drew… What do they even think of me? Surely they managed to see what I had on top of my bed when they came in here." She asked herself, in place of her friends as the tears from her eyes continued shedding, showing no signs of stopping soon. "Almost everyone's managed to move on and yet I'm still stuck over _him…_" She continued as she emphasized the word over 'him'. Every bit of detail that happened that night had flashed back into her mind, and that was the last she saw of the boy. And, she didn't want to share what happened at that time with everyone just yet… So wait!

It was all so painful for her to remember, but she didn't care what the pain would inflict on her; she just wondered into the memories of her past and just watched them unfold before her eyes over and over. No matter how many things she would forget, either by will or not, she would always try to remember the greatest times of her life and that fateful day where everything occurred and started from.

"I don't even know if it was his fault or my blame…" She said as let out a slight chuckle at her strange inquiry to herself, having completely lost the power of her will and mind. Now she wasn't even thinking straight or was just saying thing she didn't even mean to, oblivious to the surroundings as well. "And if everyone can forget and move on… why can't I?" She asked yet again to the void of space in her room. And it was a good thing there wasn't anyone here or no one was at range of earshot, although the door was kept open momentarily; because, everyone would think she had been possessed by either a Ghost Pokemon or rather her very own emotions…

Seeing as though she would always try to remember about the past, even when everyone said it would be best not to, she seemed to be completely oblivious to the pain it brought her. Surely, she did feel pangs of sorrow and grief in her heart every so often, but that wasn't the entire reason upon why she looked back at the past. It wasn't to try and re-live the good times of her life, or see the mistakes she made that could be helped made corrected. No, it was none of those at all. The reason was, everything good that had happened in her life always seemed to involve _him… _

He was the one who had brought her true joy and happiness, and had taken it away from her a few years ago. But little did she know that he was probably feeling as much remorse and pain as her, if not even more. Ultimately, the reason to why she looked back at the past; it was to see the greater moments of her life, the fun and joy she had shared with everyone else, to see _him _again…

Now some people may comment on her as rather 'obsessive' or 'addictive', but she didn't care at all about those rude remarks or impolite comments; they meant nothing at all to her. Part of her whole world revolved around the present, like her family and her friends, but the other half spun around the missing person.

And as she pressed her palm tightly against her chest, eyes still closed and the object still in hand, she took one big breath before she wanted to add in anything else. Her heart had already made up on what she was about to chant, and her mind was practically screaming for her to say it already inside of her head. Because through her senses, she could sense something big was happening somewhere outside. She had managed to regain a bit of control over her body, not letting herself succumb to her own thoughts and emotions.

"I wish…" She trailed off, trying to form the proper words from her mouth. Her senses were tingling like crazy to spit it out already, but her heart knew she had to wait for just the right moment. She didn't know what was really happening outside, being completely oblivious to her surroundings. She hadn't opened her eyes yet and still planned to keep them shut for a while, not because she couldn't open them, but something inside of her told her to just keep them shut and let her heart lead the way and take control. "I wish…" She had gone off again, the words have been formed but they just can't escape her mouth yet. Her instincts told her she had to wait for a few more seconds before it all becomes magical, otherwise, it wouldn't work to the fullest extent. Her mind however, was disagreeing with her decision and it only started to wail even farther on her to take action and change course before its too late. She did her best to ignore her mind and follow what was right, what would clear the path and lead her to her destination. She merely took the other arm that wasn't being used to wipe away some of her tears from her eyes as afterwards, she placed it on her heart, overlapping and tracing her first hand which contained the ribbon inside. She didn't know why she just wiped the pouring dose of water from her face, but something inside of her just told her not to cry upon looking back while reminiscing about the memories from before, but rather to be happy over what may happen in the possible future, and that would all be possible enough if she looked ahead forward in the direction of her life instead of living with the old memories of the abundant past; looking at the good times ahead that she had much more time to experience while she still can instead of looking back at the old memories which had seemed to partially become her life, whether they were either sad and full of sorrow or happy and filled with life. It was time to make a new beginning, one that would have plenty of happy endings and wonderful and memorable times for her to experience; and she knew that if she wanted that to happen and become true, she would have to let go from the preceding times of her life. And as she drew a last breath before what she was going to say would become hopefully true, her mind was filled with one particular image of the boy, smiling at her warmly with that innocent face, bright smile and warm brown orbs. "I wish… I wish we can meet each other once again… and forget everything bad happened between us and resume our lives like they were before…" She finally got out with a deep breath as she slowly started to open her eyes to see the world outside, her eyelids feeling quite heavy already for the time they were closed momentarily, also it being dark already. And at the moment she stared outside the window, seeing what was just occurring outside in the darkness of the night sky, her mouth went fully agape and she almost started to tumble and fall of the bed in complete and utter surprise. But deep inside that shell of surprise that hardened from the outside, there was a tender and soft feeling of great joy and happiness inside of her. Yes it was there at the first moment, but she would need time to catch up and feel it.

Outside the glazing night sky, completely blacked but illuminated by the little bright twinkling from the stars and the lustrous aura the full moon was emitting, casting upon a faint glow of moonlight that made the sight even more pretty. Previously for a while, the moon was covered with overcasts, clouds and mists surrounding it; but now, the clouds seemed to have faded away for a bit in the everlasting, beautiful scenario. And if you thought how the night sky looked like previously was really splendid and gorgeous, wait till you see it now. But the main focus wasn't at the sky, the moon or the stars; but rather, a glimmering object diving downwards towards the surface of the earth, leaving trails of sparkles and glitters as it went through its path; all to all, a very magnificent and spectacular sight to behold right before one's eyes on a very special and magical night. The night had been really magical, special and romantic; almost as if Arceus had created this special and beautiful occasion for only two special and unique people to share, no matter how far they may be from each other in terms of distance. It seems as thought, if they can both look at the same magical and glistening sky at the same time, they can be connected with each other just like that within range. Well not literally become connected, but rather let their hearts lead the way of their life and give them guidance into close the distance between each other and be with each other once again. Well anyways, that was what the girl had really hoped for.

The meteorite from the outsides of space was moving gracefully across the sky, crashing down in a slanted vertical line as it was preparing to be hit somewhere around the face of the earth. And for a few seconds, the girl could've thought she had just seen the image of someone's face, someone very close and dear to her. She didn't know if she was hallucinating images in her mind, or if the stars had really connected and joined together through her mind to form a constellation of an image. And not just an image, practically one of the images she really cares about in this world. But she really didn't care upon seeing the picture, this was much better and clearer than trying to imagine and picture it in her mind.

A jolly and pure face, warm and loving smile, and tender and affectionate eyes were what she saw in the picture above the sky, illuminated in the blanket of the night only for her and no one else to be seen by. It was as if the image from her mind had come into life by becoming a constellation right in front of her eyes; the picture inside of her having left her mind at the immediate sight of what the glittering stars have formed. The bright picture of _him_; the falling star flying over the horizon; the twinkling stars shining brightly in the sky; the luminous crescent moon casting upon a faint glow amidst the moonlight it was producing; and the pitch-black, night sky stretched endlessly outwards to the world to see; it was all perfect, one of the best nights of her life even to be exact according to her thoughts. But there seemed to be something odd about the image; even though he was smiling, it just didn't feel the same way like he did before, and how she pictured him in her mind. His eyes seemed almost impassive and having lost its color to a dull grey. But regardless of that, it was the exact way she pictured him. And she didn't care if the stars had failed to produce a 'perfect' image from her mind, anything that reminded her of that boy, the boy she loved so much, would be more than enough for her to put on a glimmering smile as well. And guess what, she did exactly that and put on a gleam smile on her face, watching the endless amount of stars twinkling and dancing about over the horizon and the flying shooting star slowly fade away from the scenario, leaving along a trail of glittering and glistening dust of magic behind it.

"May?" A voice called out from a distance and snapped her from her long absent-minded state of daze when she was lost in nature's beauty and the glorious image making the sky go even brighter around it, and the question of how the stars were able to create such a magnificent picture and how her thoughts were able to be read as the picture was traced from her mind. Well, not exactly… She was left with a very dreamy, but joyful expression on her face from observing the dark sky outside. No, it wasn't even considered dark anymore since the many objects helped enlighten the romantic atmosphere, although the dark background added in to make it look more brilliant. Footsteps could soon be heard approaching her room as she was still recovering from her trance. Why couldn't she just had gone outside and took a look at the view from there? Well one thing wasn't mentioned before is that her window was at least opened, slight breezes coming in from the outside and sending her into a fit of light shivers. "Aren't you going to come down yet? It's already late…" The voice repeated again, seeming very kind and caring inside from a first opinion of the sound. The sound of the voice seemed very sweet and lulling, almost like an angel. Well, maybe it did run in the family?

The shadow could be seen overcastting the entrance of the room as a woman emerged from the dark depths of the hallway and in front of the doorframe. Middle-aged and somewhere in the middle ages of her life, she had appeared to be quite young, possibly even appearing like in her early-twenties when she was actually somewhere around her mid-thirties. And at the first sight of her, she seemed like one of the most friendliest, hospitable and caring people who ever lived. And in relative to a certain someone else's mother; they seemed to be on equal footing with no one having a head start over the other one.

The girl almost jumped right there from her spot on the bed upon turning her head to see someone she was all too familiar with. Light mahogany colored hair in the shape of curls and twists at the end of the hair, which reached up to her shoulders, and warm and caring violet-blue eyes looking at her with a worried expression written. Big beady pink spheres were hanging down from her ears, for they were pinned down against her ear. Underneath, a plain white t-shirt worn under a pink full-sleeved jacket-like-sweater (I really don't know what you actually call it... For the girls here, can you tell me what you call it?), having white frills attached and folded to overlap. A simple and plain brown skirt that went down to her knees, barely passing over them; to add, a simple design of a small Ace-like shape in the hue of a lighter shade of brown implanted on the skirt. And white-clad sandals that had a white strap across the foot, leaving the toes open, and heels to increase her height while making it look more fancy and stylish, probably the latter out of the two when chosen by a majority.

"May? Are you ok?" She asked after looking at the sight of the girl and what she was doing, taken a bit aback. And although it looked as if she wasn't holding any item and just plainly putting both hands on her heart; the older woman knew that there was something there, and she had a pretty good guess on what it was, sourced from the younger girl's attitude, personality and behavior. After all, mother's intuition was right most for most of the time, I think anyways…

"Yep mom, just fine!" She replied in a peachy manner as she turned to face in the direction of the woman standing in front of the door, giving a smile to her for reassurance. And while she did all of that, both her hands fell down, one of them having the golden item inside of there while still managing to be unnoticed anyone else; sneakily trying to put both hands behind her back and drop the item behind her so the woman in front couldn't see as to what was the secret item that she was holding in her gripped fists and preventing from being unveiled. But she was quite surprised when the woman in front had only nodded and started walking over to her until she was in front of the girl, slipping over to take a seat on the bed next to her.

"Don't bother, I know what it is." She stated in a matter-of-fact tone as she grinned lightly while her eyes were facing the other side of the room and where the TV set is, overcoming the girl's not-so-difficult secret in a pinch of time.

"Mom, please don't tell Drew or Dawn about this… Not even Max, ok?" She begged in the given question she had created with ease. And this was the second time she was begging to someone for them to keep the secrets she had shared with them to themselves only, either directly or indirectly. Wow, she wasn't really good at keeping her own secrets locked up in her mind.

"Don't worry; you're secrets safe with me!" She turned her head to the other brunette and flashed her a convincing smile for the held promise that had manage to persuade the younger girl into it for now. Well, she was her mother and she could fully trust her to keep anything between themselves without the slightest bit of hesitation or worry, something she had slight problems doing with over the mischievous and sneaky blue-haired girl.

"Thanks mom…" She said as she leaned her head onto her mother's shoulder and rested there, helping her over her own thoughts and wishes, recurring about the mystical event that had just took place recently. And she just dearly hoped that she could believe hard enough for it to actually come true. "I don't know what the other's even think of me now, especially Drew; having problems getting over just one person's disappearance, even after 4 years!" She exclaimed the last bit as she sighed in disbelief and shame, unable to believe that if almost anyone else could do it, why couldn't she? She didn't bother to hide the ribbon from her mother anymore, since she already knew about it, as she brought both of her hands on top of her lap and opened them both, unveiling the long-held secret item right there in its place, shining and glimmering from the light of the room combined with the natural sense of the moonlight coming out from the window. She fiddled and played with it a bit using one of her hands while the other one held onto it in case it would fall off from her lap anytime soon.

"It's completely natural honey; getting over the disappearance of someone really close to you isn't easy at all… Look at his mother; she still hasn't gotten over him." She reassured and state, hopefully thinking that it would somehow manage to make her daughter feel better. She brought both of her hands up and wrapped them around her daughter's shoulders into a warm and affectionate embrace, her head still on top of her shoulder, and to help the girl go through the emotional problems she's been facing over the years.

"But she's his mother so it would only be right!" She exclaimed as she pointed out the evident mistake to her mother. She wrapped her arms around her mother's torso as well to return the embrace as the previous end of tears were going to continue soon enough and her eyes became watery. "H-how did you g-get over him? A-and everyone e-else?" She stammered a bit through the tears in her eyes as her head continued to dig into the arms and torso of her mother. Oh, she would be nothing without her mother; her consolation, help, guidance and support were what had managed to aid her life for so long, and yet, she couldn't do much for her in return of the favor.

"Well dear, it was easier for them and us because they weren't as close to him as you were to him. Of course we were all close to him, especially Brock, Misty, Dawn and a few others; you just seemed to be considered the closest one bonded with him in terms of friendship, trust and many other wonderful things, along with his mother of course. And even though we try not to show it in front of others, we all still suffered the same thing as you and we all miss him so much…" She explained the course and overview of the situation, hoping that it would lighten her daughter's tension and mood upon hearing over her reasonable and valid explanation. "And I see why you two had such a strong bond together back then; you both were really close to each other and looked cute together also!" She added in for keep's sake, trying to tease her daughter lightly in the process of it as well as attempting to lift her spirits high up in the air. She released her arms from her daughter, who seemed hesitant at first but soon complied as they broke the embrace. She had consoled her daughter so many times, so this wasn't hard at all for here. Well that's not exactly the case here… It wasn't hard at all for her to find the right words to say and make someone feel much better from their current state of situation, but the emotional pain her daughter went through was really hard for her to cure without the right medicine. And the right medicine was indeed the boy…

"Were we really that cute together?" She giggled and asked naively in response to her mother as her cheeks could be seen heating up with a light blush spread on her face. She never really understood why everyone the two of them stumbled upon would call them a 'cute couple' back in the old times. And even though she would be confused at why everyone remarked that, she never seemed to have any problem with it, in fact, she even liked it when other people commented and remarked on their relationship of friendship like that by taking it to a whole new level. And she always loved to see the boy's cheek being heated up with a blush across his face and how here face suddenly started to feel warm as a burning and tingling sensation was wriggling at the pit of her stomach. Was it because of how they looked together? Was it because of how their personalities fit perfectly? Or was it simply because of how strong their bond of friendship was and how close they were as friends, wait, best friends, to be considered as even more than that term of friendship? But still, she still loved being his best friend and she still hoped she was able to be referred to by the boy using that term…

"Yep, you two were definitely the most cutest 'couple' I've ever seen. And being together only made it seem more adorable." She said with glittery stars in her eyes, showing the full scale of adoration at the image of the two of them, her daughter and her best friend. She had really missed seeing the two of them together like that; jolly, lively, cheery and most importantly, happy… She could feel the warmth emanating from the two of them every time they were together or somewhere close to each other; it represented their compassion, joy, care, friendship, love and a whole lot more things that the two of them shared only for each other.

"Thanks mom…" She said as she gave a smile, but that soon turned into a frown in a matter of seconds as a sudden thought went through her mind, causing her to think twice about the situation at hand and making her red blush disappear from her face. "But Drew…" She whispered slightly to her mother as memories from her past stashed and cornered her mind, preventing escape at all. But there was no point in trying to hinder those memories anymore, since she had already shared it with her mother and almost every one of her friends knew about it.

"It was your decision, honey. And if you think you made the right one, then stick with it. And I'm sure he would understand if you explain it clearly to him. He definitely knows of what you're going through, and he's trying to help you with this problem you're encountering instead of getting angry at you over this." She advised and explained to her daughter, hopefully giving her a lesson to remember in life.

"Mom… I just want to see him again…" The hot tears she held back before she made her wish upon the falling white star had come back to revisit her, gently flowing down her eyes and over to her cheeks until they hit the floor beneath with a soft dripping sound. Her bed cover was wet from when she was weeping before, but somehow in the process of making her wish, she had somehow managed to hunch over in her position so the water would fall directly on the floor straight from her eyes and after rolling down her cheek.

"I know you do dear; we all do in fact…" The mother consoled as she wrapped her arms around her daughter again and brought her into a warm and loving hug, ones that only mothers could give off to their children in a special moment or event for the cause; and the girl wasted no time in constricting her mother with her own arms and burying her face on her chest. "If you believe and hope hard enough…" She said as she lowered her face and kissed her daughter's forehead before having her mouth directly opposite to one of the girl's ears. "…your wish may just come true…" She whispered the last part into the ear's of the girl in the sunhat, hopefully giving her some encouragement on what she had just talked silently about. The woman had always heard of cheesy stuff like these, but she didn't know if it actually happens. Children always get fooled when they hear someone wiser or older than them say these type of mottos or quotes, but her daughter wasn't a child anymore; she was almost done with the teenage years of her life and she had now fully become a young woman. And while she may not be as naïve and straightforward as when she was back years ago, she still partially believed in stuff like these. Marriage would come, but there was plenty of time for that and it would only cause the mother to get a headache over the discussion of the major event.

"Even if we do meet anonymously and don't know each other at the start, something in my heart tells me that he just won't be the same loudmouthed and hard-headed, but very kind, sweet and caring young boy he was back then." She explained her hypothetical theory and statement to her mother, not really sure what to say afterwards her long and deep confession that she had no idea to if it actually made sense or not. 'He couldn't have changed much over the years? Could he?' She asked herself in her mind, confused and confounded at her own inquiry over how fate had played against her former best friend and how much he had changed physically, mentally and emotionally over the years of his disappearance. And if what she hoped was correct and spot-on, he must have been really damaged emotionally by what had happened years ago and his decision, depending on whether or not he was regretting some minor part of it. The tears were still pouring down like a streaming, but quiet and gentle waterfall. "But that doesn't matter to me whether or not he's different or he's changed drastically. I can still bring the old boy who lives inside of him back. All I want now is just to see him and meet him once again…" She whispered once again as a little fire was set inside of her soul, enlightening and giving her a boost in optimism and hope. She broke the embrace momentarily to wipe the tears from her eyes before sitting back normally, her body and face directed towards her mother.

"That's good dear, and hopefully, what we all want will come true soon…" The mother had said as she leaned her head downwards and kissed the hair of the girl again before standing up on her feet and starting to walk towards the door, her back turned to the girl as she gazed at the various achievements posted about the room and looked at them with a small smile hidden from the girl. She had always been really proud of her daughter, seeing as though how far she had come from when she started to accomplish such great things in her life. And now, she was beyond recognition at the front of the world, her many fans cheering for her while going completely wild, the option at hand depending on the situation. And before going out of the room completely, she halted at the doorframe as she turned her head slightly over her shoulder to look at the girl and check how she was doing with the constant emotional distress she's been dealing with.

"May, we're going to be late… The ferry leaves in about a bit more than half-an-hour and we don't have much time left. Besides, you know how much Max is impatient at these sort of big events…" She giggled at her last sentence, being able to make her daughter join in and giggle slightly as well. She had at least managed to succeed a bit in cheering the girl up and lifting her spirits. Another job well done and another point for her. "Well take the time you need to come out from here but try not to take too long." And with the addition of a warm smile flashed to the girl, she started walking away from the room as the noise of the footsteps could be heard disappearing and her shadow fading away slowly, forgetting to close the door.

May soon stood up on her feet as well and grabbed the little item on the bed with her hands; and opening the zipper for her shoulder bag, she quickly dunked in the small, but precious ribbon in her bag before zipping it back up again. She approached the window sill and closed the glasses of the windows as she took one last look at the romantic and starry night. She sighed heavily, she probably wouldn't be seeing another night like this in a long time; especially the cosmic meteorite she was hurl down to earth was one of the rarest things to be seen in a lifetime. But she was quite happy that she got to see such a magnificent site unfold and play before her and all she could hope for now was for the wish she had wished for to come true. It would be like one of the most probable things that could satisfy, no, over joy her in this world. After the window had been shut, she turned to face the opened door of the room. Taking in another good last look at her achievements that she had worked so hard to accomplish, most of them being helped by someone special for earning the achievement itself. She sighed at the good times of her life, hoping that somehow she would be able to repeat and replay those special times which she missed so much, being a naïve child who wanted nothing more than to become one of the best, a phrase and way of life she had adopted from one of her closest friends.

Her eyes scanned and checked for anything out of place, but there weren't any besides the open door. Walking towards the door, the past had appeared right before her eyes as she was reliving them in her mind, something she basically fed out of. There were times of when she was a complete beginner in the world of Pokemon and how a young boy had offered so kindly to help her reach the top and achieve her dream to when she had met countless people during her travels, making friends with most of them while having a few enemies and opponents as well. But that thought was long disbanded after the events occurring over the years. She had a lot of rivals, but they were all on good terms with her and acted friendly to her, like she had did so to them over the years; and they still managed to provide a challenge to her were they to face each other in battle again. Of course, at that time, all she wanted to do was travel the world exquisitely, but this young boy had managed to change her demanding and persuasive way of life and turned her into a much better person while helping her reach her dream. And as she stood before the door, her head turned back to take one final look at everything she's gotten out of and finally walk through the door frame. She wouldn't be coming back here in a long time so she had to better be comfortable with living somewhere else outside rather than at home. But from her past travelling experiences, she shouldn't have much trouble getting adapted to any place. Swinging the door closed and fidgeting with the silver key attached to the other side of the door's handle, she locked the door and turned to face the other side of the dark hallway. Turning to the right a bit again, she could see the light encompassing the stair set from below as it welcomed her to walk down on it.

She inhaled air and exhaled deeply; this was going to be a new beginning and she would have to live up to it. Of course there was that wish, but she would just have to wait and see if it would understand her pain and come true for her. But for now, she had to start anew with the people of her life, reliving the old times and creating new memories, memories that will last much longer than the old ones and be much more exciting to look back upon. But she still couldn't get that boy out of her head, I mean no one could. She would still miss him and she would still hope he would one day come back and put aside everything that happened back in the past. Although she knew forgetting about the bad times in their past together won't be easy as said, she would be more than willing to try and give it up for his sake, no, THEIR sake. But that would have to come later and she knew how to be patient. All she could do for now, is to make new memories with her closest friends and families while waiting for _his_ return… "I will meet him again… one day…" She whispered to the empty space around her as the image of the boy came up on her head briefly. She simply shook it out of her head for a while, walking down towards the hallways to meet up with her friends and families and start getting down to business by catching that ship they were waiting for and heading over to who knows where? And while she was doing all of that, she would be waiting… for _him_ to return and then, start anew with a brand new beginning…

**To be continued...**

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><p><strong>Well, how did you like my tremendously long chapter? As stated before, I may edit this chapter by switching the scenes with the next chapter, so that isn't decided yet. Leave a review, criticism remark, favorite, alert, opinions, feedback's, ideas (I need a lot of them so I'll be going into detail with that on further chapters). Yes I know I haven't explained most of the clothes of the characters and I plan to do so in the next one, but I need help on ideas with Dawn and Drew's outfits, so please help. I don't need help with May's one, because I already have it planned out. You can also suggest if I should change Max's clothes, because that was completely random. Anyways, next chapter will be done when it's done and when it's done is when I can finish it, which would take around a week or two more... So please enjoy this until the next one and please leave a review here :) Oh yea, flames are not welcome, so go bug someone else. Anyways...<strong>

**Drink syrup! ^^**


	5. Chapter 4 Preview

**Merry Christmas! Hello everyone, hope you're enjoying your holidays :p Anyways, sorry about the delay because I was originally going to post Chapter 4 for Christmas; but unfortunately, that couldn't happen because I'm busy with studying for the exams and the scenes have really been mixed up from the formation in my head, causing me to take the time to arrange them properly into a fitting order. Anyways, hope you enjoy this little Christmas gift because I still need to write some more on my chapter before I can post it all in all... Enjoy! :)**

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><p><strong><span>The Legend of 'Ash' - Chapter 4 Preview<span>**

"WHAT? You haven't told me anything about that! Are you ok? You're not hurt are you? Should I call for a doctor?" The mother sprang up from her seat immediately as she went over to inspect and examine the boy with her sharp and keen eyes, searching for any signs of fatal injuries. Both the man and the boy was taken aback by that sudden action, the boy jolting awake and leaping slightly to the side. However, the electric mouse seemed completely unfazed by the abrupt rush of the trainer when he had jumped slightly on top of the couch, relaxing in his own dream world.

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><p><em>However for a second in his dream world, the mouse though he could see a very faint, but glimmering light and a slight and weak cry uttered out, as if asking for help. And in the distance was a blur, the color not being noticeable due to the distance between the two seeming so apart from each other when they weren't even that far away. And you know what? The same thing happened to the trainer… He heard a very light and frail cry out to him in his head, as if asking him for help or something like that. The voice seemed so weak that something definitely bad must have happened to it for it to ring in its voice on both the trainer's head and appear on the mouse's dream.<em>

_And in dreamland, the mouse was just as confused as the trainer is currently in reality. The yellow rodent could identify his surroundings with a little trouble, seeing as though the whole place was filled with a bunch of white fluffs that were coming from the bottom, the sides and from above; practically, the white, soft and fluffy clouds came from everywhere in every direction. The place just seemed endless because the horizon was only covered in a thick fog that enshrouded most of the distant areas of 'dreamland', being as though where the lonely blur of a figure was hiding. The place seemed to have a yellowish background tint to it and was filled with all sorts of stuff that were hard for him (and me :p) to explain and make sure it was depictured properly by the readers. It had a sort of relaxing and comforting vibe to it that the mouse could only wonder in his head as to why he was transported here all of a sudden. He looked out to see that the figure on the other side was still there, crying out weakly for it to come closer. Suspecting a trap at first, but quickly getting over the idea since this was his own dream and he could do whatever he wanted or change in anytime; he waddled over in a bipedal stance with his chubby little feet to reach the figure. The figure still wasn't identifiable, barely being able to see the color of it since it was just a blur in the distance. But for some peculiar reason, the closer the mouse was trying to get to the distant figure, the farther it seemed to fade away into the horizon of the cloudy and hazy overcasts. And quickly thinking up on a brilliant idea, he placed both his feet downwards from the bipedal position and dashed up quickly with both his paws and feet in an attempt to catch up with the figure. And as the mouse was dashing incredibly, it disappeared into a yellow blur itself to reappear a few feet away from the place of its last disappearance. It was using the known move Agility in order for it to try and catch up with the other fading blur in the father distance as it was blending in the thick fog and into the horizon._

_"Pikachu…" The voice of the lonely figure echoed within the earshot range of the mouse's sensitive ears. It just seemed so fragile and helpless to the frustrated mouse's ear that he couldn't help but loosen up and gain more speed on his Agility attack while wondering, what the heck was happening and who was that? He was starting to doubt if this really was some dream, or some dream that wasn't in his current control; for the reason, it just didn't seem under his power at all for the happening situation. I mean, why would he start dreaming about weird stuff like this? Emphasis on the given word 'weird' is needed, not to forget in addition to 'awkward' and 'strange'. But, he could know for sure that he was in fact dreaming, having no other possible way of being transported to such a place with the exception of passing through the gates of the afterlife and entering the heaven-filled world, which may as well be a strong possibility for recent occurrence. But sticking to 'dream' would be a much more relievable and comforting likely situation for now. Will someone explain this incoherent theory that is affecting the law of psychology by disrupting and diffusing it, completely messing its unique and equivalent balance?_

_The mouse had started to gain more speed on its run and pick up the Agility attack as it kept on disappearing and appearing into yellow flashes quite so often in the blink of an eye. It was a race, a race to determine if the yellow mouse proved up to the challenge with his speed. But it only seemed like a race to him, he needed some answers. His big, black beady eyes could see that the figure in the distant was so close to disappearing from his dream with only so much as to only uttering a single word and silent cries that rang through his head. And when he was a few steps away from it, he made a massive leap on top of the cloudy surface, which somehow managed to give him a jump boost instead of letting his little chubby feet be sunk in to the fluffiness, and sprang upwards with a little support from his lightning bolt tail. In midair, he spun and rolled a few times, showing his acrobatics skills to particular no one except a blur, which wasn't exactly amused with the little 'performance'. And as the rodent closed his eyes while preparing to hit the mysterious creature, which he had already assumed was solid as a rock and the softness of the overcasts would help him with his head damage that he may have gone on to receive. Maybe the little show-boating was a bit enough already? Pretty sure as to what he was trying to think of, he knew that the decision had already been made and the action must continue. Maybe he could try and divert it by turning a bit? Nah, who knows for he may fall of the clouds and into somewhere where he had no idea of, choosing to not take the risk of never seeing this little 'dream world' again._

_His head tucked in, his hands and legs drooping over and his tail retracted back to his body, he closed his eyes and prepared for waiting impact. Although, before closing his eyes, he could see that whoever that blur was had stopped dead right in their tracks and looked in awe at the mouse approaching it. He could have taken a bit more note of the mysterious object's appearance or characteristics when his eyes were opened, but it was too late I guess._

_The biggest shock hit him right in the face, not literally. He was completely surprised to feel that he didn't feel any solid mass or surface pound against his body when the speed of his body and attack, combined with the momentum of his charge should have resulted him in getting his brains popped out or head damaged. And even if the other end had a light mass, just like the rodent, the speed of the rushing march should have been enough to cover up for that small property. Getting up on his feet after feeling his head crash with the bounciness of the fluffs, he dusted his little body and knees off of any possible remaining dirt and shook his head off before gathering information of his bearings and whereabouts. And the moment he opened his eyes again after falling down on the smooth surface, he could feel a sort of eerie and queer aura surround his chubby yellow body. And in reaction to quick and sudden shock, the rodent jumped a few feet back forthwith and on top of another cloudy particle below those scampering feet. Looking about of his body and to the ghostly figure ahead, that was enough to cause him to jump back a few feet again promptly in another fit of utter surprise. And that was the last time he would be taken off his guard like that, he decided to act brave and face the figure straight in the eyes, obviously expecting that he couldn't see its eyes yet… But regardless, this time he was able to take a much better picture of the mysterious item, or creature…_

_It was tinted in a light shade of grey, but the actual color was probably hidden due to its ghostly form. Yes, it had a very phantom and supernatural look to its appearance, blatantly given away by its floating form and oozing, shadowy legs that looked like shredded cloth. But Pikachu, the mouse, couldn't recognize it as some type of Ghost or Dark Pokémon. And that's all the detail that could be captured and processed into his brain, for it was not sufficient enough for even an attempt to guess or deduce any irrelevant or weird suspects that may come into his mind for an identification._

_Now, he thought he was just going mad and definitely beyond crazy. His mind just seemed so messed up at the moment from all these weird objects or items his eyes were picking up on and his sub-consciousness must have been damaged badly by some sort of psychotic or crazy mental problem. Maybe he was just hallucinating visions in his head that ended up being transferred into his dreams through his sub-consciousness? When can he just wake up so he can confide to everything weird that had happened to him in his dream to his loving, caring and kind trainer; loving, caring and kind for him anyways..._

_"Pikachu..." The voice ringed through the ears of Pikachu again, turning it's very strange, but nice body... so the backside of it was facing the mouse. And, it had a very beautiful figure, even though it the whole figure couldn't be seen... Wait, where are these strange thoughts coming from? Probably from Pikachu's point of view...? Ok, the mouse had managed to take note that the shredded feet-thingy was in fact not the real feet, but a ghostly blanket covered over the figure, giving it off the supernatural aura, grey in lack of color and weird figure shape. Nonetheless, a little of the figure could be seen from outside the cloth, but still no prevailing hints over the lack of exposure for a clarification. The voice sounded somehow familiar, but the mouse just couldn't trace the identity of who it belonged to; but he was more than sure that he had heard that very familiar voice somewhere in his life, probably sometime in the past…_

_"Pika chupi!" The mouse had finally said his first words after entering his little 'dreamworld' and being lost in thought of confusion and puzzlement for so long. Well, by the looks of it, the creature didn't seem to be of the mouse's local species, Pikachu's. But anyways, Pokemon could communicate with each other through their 'native tongue', regardless of the species that started up the conversation according to the big **Pokemon Encyclopedia** or other useless junk like that... Anyways, another bold and daring attempt by the little mouse was that it actually tried to jump on top of the figure again. But before he could actually hit his target spot-on this time..._

_The creature was seen with a light smile, noticeable by the mouse going for impact, and after that, it just vanished into thin air, and probably from his current dream for now... Pikachu had failed miserably to hit down his target, and this time he didn't even remember hitting the fluffy, cloudy surface for there was darkness that enveloped his vision, causing his eyes to fade away from everything in sight, and suddenly feeling his body go lighter..._

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><p><strong>Yes I know it's in Italics... Dream sequences are going to be like that... Anyways, how did you like it? Please leave a review since it helps a lot in my encouragement and motivation to write and update faster :D Sorry if it's gonna be a while since the next chapter, but gotta wait :p And again, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone! ^^<strong>

**Complicated theory! (this is to keep you entertained and wandering about in suspense and confusion by messing with your mind) : Why do we live to fill our lives when we die abruptly before the start? And why does it end up to be a part of our life if we cannot reminisce in it? Although, a good heart and a calm mind, there just might be an exception to this mystery...**


	6. Chapter 4

**Yes, new chapter :) OK, now you're wondering why I've been gone for over two weeks and why I'm updating 4 days only after the preview. Answer: Well, I've been busy studying for the exams and all that other stuff. And, turns out I wrote double of 7500 words in the span of 3 days...**

**Also, a shout-out to Spotted Flame for her recent birthday ^^ Hope, you're enjoying it and this little late-present :)**

**Now, I would like to say this all seriously and gravely... But, I'll leave it like this; the story still has a long way to go, but this may be one of my last chapters... But, I can assure I'll at least go over to the main plot, since I'm at least wanting something to be remembered...**

**So, anyways, enjoy this chapter ^^**

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><p><strong><span>The Legend of 'Ash' - Chapter 4<span>**

"WHAT? TOMORROW?" A voice screamed from across the background, immediately startling and alarming the two other people inside the room, who were in there along with the owner of the voice. He was even taken a bit aback by his own action himself, not seeing the inner self within him exclaim and repeat something that had been said to him countless times, yet he still refused to believe it and consider it fact and not just a sneak and mischievous lie. But would that old man to the left of him really lie? Old people are just honest and frank like an angel, old angels to be more exact… And this man looked no different, obvious from the features signifying old age all over his face; he was definitely a very wise and respected man all around the world, due to his famous achievements and discoveries that he had won and founded within the span of his lifetime.

"Yes, tomorrow…" The old man in the sofa said in reply with a heaving sigh, somehow amused yet surprised at the boy's sudden questioning outburst of shock. He could eye that the boy sitting on the front couch was trying his best not to get over-tensed and hyper about the situation and just stay calm and cool in the head.

"It's not that hard to get it in your head, is it?" Chimed in another voice, although more softer, kinder and pleasant. Everyone turned their attention to the owner of the voice by either turning their head or just tilting their heads to the sides a bit.

"Not that, I just can't believe they would give the chance to change the schedule just like that without notice or on such a short one. Although I could guess that they were rather busy with the schedule of the upcoming matches?" The boy clarified his mother's given inquiry and improved his answer to make it sound more formal, logical and definitely mature.

The older man was taken a bit aback by the choice of words from the young boy, not expecting that much big of a significant growth in his mind that could have possibly happened a few years ago… Well he was doubted once again and he began to pay the price for underestimating someone who he previously thought of as a 'lost cause' and naïve young boy who wanted nothing more than to become the best in this vast and wide world we all live in; and tomorrow, he would get a chance to prove his strength, skill, friendship and trust, as to what else he had been doing within the past few years. Although for him, lesson learned; never underestimate people, regardless of the flaws they hold and disadvantages they may carry with them. The mother could only expect her son to talk so 'professionally' and in a skillful way; although she was kind of shocked and surprised the first time around she had saw him after so long and at how much he had grown, fully not expecting that much of a change from the boy himself. But, she knew now that he was not so perfect and had some flaws stuck with him as well, I mean everyone does. And lastly for the boy, well it was just natural and he got used to learning some appropriate manners in addressing someone or starting up a conversation using a formal way.

"Well yes, they were busy with the date of the opening ceremony that they had to reschedule it to allow the closing ceremony to happen on that special night…" The man explained with an emphasis on the last few words to answer the boy's inquiries of his dilemma; head off now and arrive there late in the night or wait until tomorrow and then reach there. And to add to the predicament; the boy's trusty and worthy Charizard would still need healing for now so the boy has to use one of his other Flying-type Pokémon, but tomorrow would Charizard be fit and ready to fly, recovering from that fateful accident that had took place very recently.

"Right, that's a situation for them, and me unfortunately… So I guess I'm staying here tonight then and heading off tomorrow?" The boy managed to get out as he turned his face to the right and asked the woman giving off the usual cheery smile to everyone around her that it almost made the room seem even more brighter.

"Well dear, you do have a poor time management at times…" The woman replied to the boy's awkward question, awkward for her in the least. And this was a trait that had stuck with him till the very end, always ending up really late; be it in important meetings, schedules or appointments, he just didn't have the skill to catch up with time in the never ending race.

"Don't worry mom, I'll make it there in time…" He said a rather bit coolly as he laid back on the couch and put his arms above his head and up in the empty air for a while before dropping them on the cottony surface again, alerting the yellow blob beside him on the sofa from its constant sleeping posture.

"Pika!" The yellow chunk responded as it leapt up in the air and on the boy's body, moving onwards until they were on head-level where he was given the chance to snuggle his head against and with the boy's cheeks.

"Woah, calm down buddy." The boy said as he felt a soft and light fur rub against his skin, creating a frictional force between the two of them. After the little cheek-rubbing was done, the boy grabbed the mouse-like figure from the top of his shoulder and put it on his lap, proceeded by him rubbing the fur and scratching behind the ear of the yellow creature, who just sighed and cooed contentedly in delight.

"Some one's enjoying their times here, huh?" The mother asked with sharp eyes and that ever-continuous big smile on her face, touched by how close was the bond between the boy and the yellow mouse. Best friends? No, that wouldn't be the right word for the strength of their friendship and trust, for it was far greater than that mere term.

"Guess so… He really doesn't get time to relax and when he does, it's usually short-lived. Everyone went through a really tough and staggering schedule of training every day, but within the past year, we managed to ease up a bit and take more constant amounts of free time." He mentioned out to the old, slanted man and the ever so-curious mother while continuing to pet the rodent on his lap, resting comfortably in the warm and bright atmosphere around it, or more specifically, him.

"May I ask why you went through all that suffering and experienced the hardships of life?" The man, wearing a yellowish lab coat, replied at what he found odd and bizarre of the boy's recent change of behavior and actions that resulted him in being whom he is now, sitting across the old man himself in a comfortable and relaxed manner, so much in fact that he wouldn't care to change or move his place for anything in the world… Of course, there were a few exceptions…

"Professor, I really don't want to talk about it now… Maybe later but just not now…" He said as blatantly as possible as he closed one eyes shut while the other one remained open, eyeing the room with the corner of his other eye in a time passing manner while making chats with the old man to the left of him and the woman to the right of him, both of them being seated on a green leathered couch. The room seemed to consist of a few wooden furniture's like sofas and tables in the center of the room, a couple of ancient and mythical paintings hung up on the wall depicturing legendary Pokémon, a shoe rack in front of the door, stairs that lead to the second story of the house and a well-indented kitchen entrance a few steps after the set of stairs, showing the kitchen inside from the outside view.

"I understand what you're going through boy… because I know of a person who's having a similar experience to the one you're feeling… And the person's been feeling it for a long time as well, just like you…" He explained with a slight tone of sadness and disappointment in his voice, signaling the alert of both the boy and mother's catch.

The woman, she knew better than that to keep quiet and listen to the exchange of words that are going to be thrown at both her son and her long time friend from each other consecutively. And well, at least her boy had enough decency within him that he knew better of to always respect his elders and avoid crude and violent fights with anyone. And with her first guess and the image of who first popped up in her mind in the blink of a flash, she so smartly could already assume know the answer to who the aged-man was speaking about.

"And who might this peculiar person be professor? Someone I already know of perhaps?" He asked as he traced the bit of sorrow in his voice. And from the intelligence he had gained within the years, he could clarify that whoever the person was must be really close to the old man himself, resulting in the action of his current behavior.

"Yes, you do in fact know him… We all know him to assure and I can say that you two were pretty close during the previous times of your life. But you'd have to figure that out on your own since it won't just drop out of the blue like that, or maybe it will…" He started, bowing his head down in a tad bit of shame due to a promise he was just about to break, for not had he thought up for a way to not reveal the name of who he was talking about yet just leave a very unnoticeable hint in his sentence that could puzzle young trainer and his mother even more. But this was just like a small test to him, not to see if the boy could figure it out who it was using his intelligence, but for something else that nobody would have predicted for, and that's if he could understand and see who it is by feeling it with his own heart; the pain they share together without either one of them even knowing about the other's predicament. He also wanted to test who would first come into his mind, since he read somewhere in an article about the person who first pops into one's mind is the one who he or she cares about the most. And if he's correct on the money, he still hasn't gotten over _her…_

"Professor…" He said in a low tone voice as he shifted his head back on top of the couch's support body. He took a deep breath and let it out in the form of a sigh, why would the old geezer even have to remind him of these type of stuff? "It's her, isn't it?" He asked as obviously as possible in a half-hearted manner, not even needing to think twice about the answer to the hinted question. And in his mind, he could understand forthwith that his answer was probably most likely the same as the one on his mother's mind. To him, the answer was just too blatantly obvious.

And then and there, he actually did it; the man lifted his head up and smiled, bewildering the boy and mother at the process of his sudden degree in the change of his behavior. He knew the play of the outcome, and it was definitely true that he indeed cared for _her_, according to the so-called article the grey-haired man had read; even after all these years he's been enduring with little difficulty, he still can't get her out of his head and still kept her with him in the form of a memory. Well, who actually could?

"Well actually ma'boy, it's not her I'm referring to; even though she's probably undergoing the same feelings and state you're going through currently. It's someone else you knew for quite a long time. And anyways, concerning about the girl you just brought up, she's been-…" One queer look from the boy's single open eye was enough to make the older man stop straight in his tracks, wanting to go back to being discreet about the situation. The grayish-brown color that was contained within those orb was considered to be intimidating by some, even the professor had to admit frankly.

The boy proceeded to close both his eyes and relax while his hands were still rubbing the soft yellow far of his partner. He was laughing anxiously inside, that old trick managed to intimidate the man into stopping his sentence. But, he didn't mean to gesture it like that, it was just so he could pay more attention to the 'interesting' topic about to have been spoken.

'Well that's a big shock, so it's not her after all… But if it's not her, then who is it? And what's been happening within these years that I was gone for?' The thought of it rang through his mind like a rattling bell. But, he needed to clarify so he let his mouth carry onwards with the inquires that the shocked man had left him with. "So professor, if it's not her, then who exactly are you talking about? And wow, what precisely transpired for within the time of when I was gone for the past few years?" He queried the man with the full-sleeved yellow lab coat, worn over his white polo shirt that hugged his chubby, old figure and matched with a light brown trousers held in place with a brown belt and silver buckle; brown loafer shoes embracing his feet from the cold chills outside of the warm and comfortable house. Wrinkles planted all over his face and neatly combed, but spiked, grayish-brown hair brightened above his head in place.

"Well that dear boy, is for you to find out…" He said, not wanting to break the ties and promises he had with the spill of the secret he was entrusted with where he could have given it directly out to the trainer in front of him. Red vest with white linings that went together from the bottom of the vest and eventually spread apart as it reached the top and joined with the two sides of the white collar of the clothing. Black half-sleeved plain sweatshirt that was worn under the more fashionable and designed raiment. Baggy blue jeans that went down his body from his waist and covered his legs in the denim fabric and plain black wristbands wore about on both sides of the wrist. His feet was barefooted and he didn't seem to feel cold at all from the seasonal change in relative to both the mother and the old man, having worn comfortable fuzzy slippers that ensured warmth or tight brown loafers respectively. But from the matching color, there was a red and black designed sneaker with a white sole just beside the shoe rack, which was situated a few steps after entering the house through the wooden door. And hidden underneath his vest and sweatshirt was a black belt with a silver buckle that hung up his blue jean pants. His messy black hair sprung up in all sorts of crazy directions from the roots implanted on top of his head and his cold eyes produced a faint gleam of impassiveness. And another travelling item he may be holding with him was the large and bulky yellow backpack that was right beside the assumed shoes he wore. But there was just something missing, something that would keep his head warm from the cool winds that flew in a breeze constantly or block the warm sunlight from hitting his face with the bill of its body. Something which is completely red with a white bill and a white semi-circular line above the bill, having another white semi-circle line that was placed adjacently to the first one; showing a semi-circular red shape in the middle of the white semi-circle lines, completely isolated from the outside red since it was bordered and protected by those white lines. He was missing it; he was missing his famous hat… And well, after it fell off from the incident they had occurred a while ago, it would take a bunch of Officer Jenny's to initiate a search mission; if not it wasn't taken away by some wild, scampering Pokémon or some wandering small child…

Having nothing else to stare at, the boy's eyes accidentally wondered over to the window and he caught a glimpse of the magnificence of the night. He was really stunned and he continued to look intently at the sight, but now with any sort of weird attraction or impolite manner.

"You know what…? I'm going outside to look around for a while; it's just this wondrous sight kind of inspires me and makes me remember of something very special… But it's nothing to worry about; I'll only be gone for a few minutes." The trainer spoke up and announced his current plans to the party of people, not wanting them to worry about his sometime 'strange' behavior, or that's how they define it. Seeing the nod from the woman in consent, he gently placed the yellow mouse beside him on the warm and comfy mouse, having fallen asleep already again for the second time of the day. But, rest assured, he deserved it, his trainer would have commented. Getting up on his feet and walking over to the door, he made a sort of peace-salute sign before stretching his arms to open the door and walk through it, closing it behind with a light bang.

And the second after he was gone, the man turned so quickly to the woman on the opposite side after seeing the black-haired boy disappear. The old guy's eyes were filled with so much confusion and amazement that it even managed to scare the woman a bit from the glare given to her.

"How…?" He asked in complete surprise, never seeing this could ever possibly happen. Sure he hoped that there would be some sort of positive sign of a return or the comeback itself, but he never excepted this much of a leap in the change. "How did he change so much; and at so fast…?" In a bewildered state completely, he could see the woman had no possibly logical or coherent answer to that question, since she's hasn't known much about what he's done over the last few years besides rigorous training. Well, it would be rather impolite to discuss over these matters about the boy directly in front of the boy himself so now's a perfect chance to take.

"My little boy, he's so grown up… He's not that rowdy, impatient and self-confident boy anymore, but now a calm-minded, respectful and mature young adult… No one ever expected him to change this much, and it seems like the impossible can turn into the possible in reality…" Pausing for a while and adding in a sigh as tears of joy was almost going to stream down her face, she moved her hand upwards to wipe them away with a sniff before it got out of hand. But as soon as she finished sighing deeply, her face and expression turned into something very serious and confused. "However, there's something else... No mortal person could have such a drastic change in attitude in such a short time even if one did try hard and regardless of how special and unique they are, even if it is my little boy. Something pushed him to go through this; and I have no idea what it is since what he and _her_ went through, there's no logical explanation for the sudden shifting of his attitude…" She asked as she took a deep breath and exhaled it out, but not in the form of a sigh. Maybe something was bothering her kid? Maybe something was after her kid? He'd probably be able to take care of himself of any guys who threaten him, even without using the power of Pokémon; but still, she'd need to have a very private talk with him regarding his health and all that other stuff.

* * *

><p>"Hurry up Brock, or else we'll be late!" A feminine voice screeched from across the background as thumping footsteps could be heard approaching the current scene in a frantic rush. A modern railway station with the interlinking rails in the farther right, allowing for the train to pass through and stop. Near the glass-encased automatic entrance, there were many seats and other convenient stuff like vendor machines, free newspaper and magazines and a couple of souvenir shops to entertain bored and tired passengers who are waiting for their train to arrive and then depart in them.<p>

"Misty, magnet train; takes us anywhere in the blink of a zip if we want it to…" A slightly more depressed and masculine voice said as he wondered at how the girl who was pulling and dragging him had so much strength. Guess swimming does have its benefits for good exercise and a healthy build. Not like he, himself had been exercising much, he was in pretty good shape to stay fit and out of trouble from being overweight; obvious by the nutritious food he cooks up, he still somehow managed to add some flavor and make it deliciously enjoyable to eat while having a concern about the calories taken in. Not worrying about that now, he just let himself succumb to the girl's power; scratch that out, he was already powerless and merciful from the start when the girl had started to drag him by grabbing his wrist, half-way across the entire town to reach this stationed structure.

The sound of the automatic doors opening was heard by almost everyone inside, save for a few for they were certainly too busy doing other stuff to notice, as two figures rushed in and stopped abruptly, panting and breathing heavily as one of them even fell to the ground, making an 'oww!' noise in the process of his face hitting the concrete floor of the train station.

After the orange-haired girl had took her time to release Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) and relaxing for a bit from all the exhaustion, she immediately rushed back over to her helpless friend, who just lay there, face making contact with the hard ground as he seemed unfazed at all to move anytime soon. She offered a hand to pick him up, but seeing as though he was trying to take a break himself and his eyes still wandered about in the floor, unknown to the helping hand and not planning to get up anytime soon, she bent over a bit more and gripped his frail and tired arms, whereas they were usually a bit bulky and muscular. No, they were not from exercising; he had his other secret ways…

Taking a deep breath, she used all the strength she could muster and all that she possibly had left to lift his heavy friend, him being quite tall actually. Everyone else who were paying attention in the train station was looking at the duo with wide eyes, not expecting a circus performance this time of the night, but it was still quite early in the night for the Kanto region, where the two of them were dwelling at currently. Finally managing to pull her tall friend back onto his feet, he grabbed his wrist again and started walking over to the other end of the station in a hurry, to where the railway and the authorized clerk men was; but, not sensing any movements from the dead weight, she turned back to see that his friend was still in a daze, but not of exhaustion, but rather because of looking at a 'hot' lady (in his opinion) pass by him through the side and towards the train station gates, where the two of them linger to reach in time so desperately. He was taking note of her beautiful figure while drooling all the while in doing so, and they haven't been introduced properly! Regular behavior that he just could not let go from his personality…

Getting aggravated and annoyed at her friend's weak mind and dazed reaction, she let go of her tight grip and moved her hands to both his arms as he grappled them tightly. She could notice that her friend was already a great few inches taller than her, her head reaching up to his ears; but well, it was always like that, even way back then. "Hurry up! We need to meet up with the others!" She screamed at the poor man again as she started to shake him violently to snap him out of his so-called trance. And it seemed like it had worked pretty well as the spiky haired man shook his head and looked at his companion with a confused expression. Well, it was at least better than getting his ears stretched and pulled by this same girl, something she had done very so often back in the past; but she had come to learn and respect that this is what made the pervert, Brock…Brock, and she understood that this was his personality that he could not get over with unless he had a real girlfriend or was in a relationship with a girl he would drool over. "Let's go already!" She exclaimed again as she grabbed her squinty-eyed friend again by the wrist and pulled him over to the other end of the station, not trusting his slowly walking pace to be satisfactory enough for her own concerns.

"Ughh… I just don't get it why they made the Cerulean Magnet Train Station so far from the Gym itself!" He complained as he let himself be dragged again over the painful little walk. Most people had directed their gazes back to what they were originally doing before the halt of disruption, but there were still a few creepy ones eyeing the two of them with great and peculiar interest.

"Well, we can't complain about that now; we have a train to catch! Hopefully it still didn't depart…" She hissed frantically as thoughts of worry sprang up in her mind, causing her to get more anxious over this important situation. Skidding a bit and avoiding the people in their way, they shortly made it to the reception as the guard there welcomed them with a warm smile. Good for them, the station wasn't that packed today, since it was holiday season and many venturing trainer's and coordinator's would use trains like these to travel back to their home town and celebrate with their friends and family there at the time of enjoyment and love, not to mention sharing as well…

"How may I help you, sir and madam?" The reception asked gently and with a warm smile as he looked at the two approaching figures headed presumably in his direction. Well suited with a complete green uniform; consisting of straight and ironed green trousers, a green uniform top that most security authorities wear and a green beret to go with it placed neatly on top of his head, securing and hiding the trends of black hair inside. The only green that wasn't consisted in his uniform was a pair of black leathered shoes hugging his feet, which were polished very nicely and emitted a shine. But as he narrowed and squinted his eyes a bit (no joke…), he was completely left speechless and shock by his uncouth discovery… "Wait, y-you're-" Cut off by the noise of the orange-haired girl grumbling complaints of fame and popularity while the spiky-haired man was quietly mumbling something under his breath that no one could hear… Not even the creepy stalkers…

And back to the weird people, their eyes just doesn't seem to want to leave that exciting scene unfolding before them. And they arrived here right on time to see the two civilians (not exactly) burst out through the door of the station. And somehow, they just seemed interlinked to each other; all were the same type of gloomy clothes and having a shady atmosphere surround them. Trouble was definitely brewing…

"Yes, Misty and Brock…" The red-head interrupted in an annoyed and bored manner over the recognition these two people had everywhere they went. But unbeknownst of them at all, they were still being watched by a particular hand of bizarre people, who were eyeing them fascinatingly and amusedly. "We want to know if the 9 PM train to the Indigo Plateau is still in the station?" She asked as she let go off her friend the second they arrived at the receptionist's desk, believing he can stand by himself now and there were no gorgeous women wandering about for him to drool over, that pervert…

The guard brought out a huge black book and began scanning through the pages intently and carefully. After a while of searching, he found out exactly what he was looking for as he closed the book after that and faced the direction of the two of them. "Ahem… I'm happy to inform you that the train destined for the Indigo Plateau still hasn't departed and will leave momentarily." The guard assured the two of them with another catchy smile that showed his bright and shiny teeth. So he does care about dental hygiene to some kind of level…

"Thanks a lot!" The girl claimed in delight with a big smile of her own, relieved that they didn't end up late and get booted out until the next train, which is very late and they wouldn't be able to catch their destination by time.

"My pleasure, sir and madam." The guard said as he put the huge black book down and below somewhere on his desk, never to return again and see the light except for an emergency situation like previously…

The red-head looked over at front and saw the train hasn't come in yet from her previous directions, giving a sigh of relief. She then peered over from her sides to see some of the souvenir shops that sold a bunch of mementos and scanned for something nice that would catch her eye. However a sudden tap on her shoulder and a light nudge to her arm distracted her from her relief as she turned around annoyed to find her friend with a very serious and suspicious expression; her expression of disruption immediately dropping after she saw how her friend was looking at her with mysterious eyes, that were squinted and not viewable.

But then again, no one would want to see how they looked like. The last time anyone saw his real eyes, the green ol' baby chap had nightmares after seeing the horror that possibly scarred him for life. His mother, a giant Tyranitar, seeks revenge for the mental damage inflicted upon her son from the depths of the mountain, waiting for the return of the squinty-eyed man so she could tear him apart… So, this was probably the reason why his eyes were banished from revelation by birth; but no one ever knew how he could see the world… He really was a mysterious man…

"Misty, I think we're being watched…and followed…" He whispered to her ever so lightly and inaudibly to the girl, making sure none of the spectators could hear of and make out anything the two of them were exchanging privately and secretly. Of course, everyone was minding their own business, with the exception of the creepy stalkers supposedly; the only probable reason for the man to strike up this conversation with his long-time and dear friend.

"Huh? What on earth are you talking about Brock?" She asked frivolously as she raised her voice alarmingly and caused the whole crowd to look at her direction again, the creepy people to inch a bit closer to them for eavesdropping and her friend to face-palm at her tone, and her attitude…

Now it was his turn to grab her hand and walk away to the eastern part of the train station, mostly isolated because the majority was hanging back on the western wing. Oh and did I mention the eavesdropping people had failed their attempts to overhear of their conversation since they were in the western part of the station as well? And it would just be awkward if they crossed over to the other side; so they decided to be wise and discreet by just staying there and eyeing them from afar. There were only a few people and souvenir shops situated back on where the due were walking over to; a wise choice by the man indeed, guess it just shows he can definitely use his brain when serious or grave.

Letting go of the girl and taking a seat on the red leather of the given chairs, he gestured his friend to do the same; which she did without a slight hesitation, but with a considerable amount of confusion.

"Do you see those people over at the other side watching us?" He asked as he shook his head a bit in the direction he was appointing to, hoping she would be able to see it. He saw her nod her head a bit after her eyes crossed over to the pointed direction as her cerulean-blue eyes were filled with confusion and a dozen of queries.

"What about them?" She asked as her eyes didn't even move the slightest bit away from the people she was eyeing, taking in every note of their appearance in detail. But from the atmosphere she could feel emanate from them, something was definitely up.

"They've been eyeing us with interest and curiosity even since YOU burst us through the door, even when most of the people went back to doing what they were originally doing before we made our 'entrance'." Emphasizing a word and applying intended sarcasm to another, all hands were pointed at the girl for the cause of their 'grand arrival'. But, he still managed to keep his tone in the form of a light whisper only, not wanting the only few people here to give them impolite and impudent looks. "Something is definitely wrong about them… They just seem so dark and shady in character…" He whispered back again as he went back to eyeing them, making sure they could see that the two of them were actually staring at them back by tilting his head so that it looked like he was facing the girl when really, he was actually spying through the corner of his squinted eyes.

A screeching noise came out that immediately grabbed the attention of all the other passengers waiting by. They all turned their heads to see a white trace of blur speed past the previous rails and stop on the marking point. Metal painted white with a red line going across the middle of it; many windows above showing the interior of the transport and a few doors closed for access to passengers getting in or out. In a second, the many doors of the train opened and a bunch of people came out, some excited to see their old friends and families again while some were tired from the long trip.

"You know what Misty? We'll talk about this later, for now, let's just get on the train before it leaves…" Brock-y announced as she stood up and walked over back to the stand of the receptionist, digging his hands in his pockets to look for something important.

The girl just shook away thoughts of their weird observers and followed after her friend, seeing him bring out two tickets for a consent entry to board the train that will lead straight to their destination; no transits. But, due to how far they are from their destination and how the railway track is the longest way to their stopping place, they won't be reaching Indigo Plateau until morning at least, not even with the awesome power of the Magnet Train…

She could see that Brock had handed in the tickets and jerked a thumb in her direction, signifying that she was going with him on their long travel. Going ahead of her and stopping right beside the door to wait for her to come over, she started to walk over to the receptionist as she could see the many passengers stand up from the waiting lounge and walk their way over to the train to board if after showing their respective tickets. Looking back slightly, she could see that the absurd group of people were still standing or sitting in their original position, not fazed at all. And finally ignoring that and seeing that this was probably the last she'll see of them, she felt somewhat relieved as she passed through the security checks and went over to catch up with the spiky-haired man.

"Guess they're not following us after all. But that's a relief since they were starting to freak me out…" She told her long friend once she reached over to him, seeing him nod positively in response after observing their movements for a while. But strangely enough, these group of people were now not directing their eyesight to the ones they had eyed so amusedly, but actually being normal by just waiting there; although they weren't doing any sort of activity in particular, but rather just staring at the whatever they could stare at… Ignoring them for a fact, seeing as though how they were connived with other stuff, the both of them nodded their heads in response as they crossed the boundaries and boarded the train, searching for a good seat to take.

And now this is where it starts to get interesting. Unbeknownst of Brock and Misty, the group of strangers had gotten up the second they saw the two of them leave and started to gather around each other in a bizarre manner.

"It's time…" One of them said in a gruff voice as he gestured the group to the train in front of them. Bt the looks of it, this guys seemed to be the leading member of their pack. But still, there were quite a bunch of them, about 7 or 8 people. There were even some females in the group, still having that frightening glare despite the gender difference. They all nodded their heads simultaneously and started to walk together in a pack, scaring a few clerks of the multiple souvenir shops in the process. They had a very mean and eerie look on their faces that was meant to scare passer-bys and tell everyone that they indeed mean business.

By the time the group had reached the reception for entry, the leader of the group shot one fierce glare to the poor man on duty that made him flinch and tremble back away in fear. All of the members wore dark coats over their inner-wear, hiding them for they did not want to be discovered here and fail their objective so soon.

"No tickets, but we'll be boarding that train…" The leader of the group said in a rough and intimidating voice, scaring to man in the green uniform even further to him backing away. The other members of the group just looked away, for they feared it would be too much for the security man to handle and then it would lead to a commotion, something they didn't want to get involved in now…

"Y-Yes s-s-sir…" The kind man tumbled over his words as he started to stutter away in fear, knowing better that it would be wise to avoid this and not put up a fight with this group of hooligans; for who knows that they had up their sleeves and what they were capable of? But from the somber atmosphere around them, it revealed all anyone needed to know about them. The shopkeepers knew better as well to mind their own business and continue with their work. The passengers who recently came out from the trip didn't dare look them in the eye as well as most of them were starting to head out into the city while the few ones who had transit stops just waited about in the lounge.

And after that little scene was over, the group walked over to the stationary train, looked at its features and appearance and finally proceeded to board it; while the helpless guard was relieved he would live to see another day. They would need to avoid being discovered by the two friends that they were on the same train, and were heading off to the same destination. But after the long trip will be over, it would definitely be time to initiate the starting part of their grand plan…

* * *

><p>"Wow, what a night…" The voice of a boy said in awe as he walked across the silver house with the red roof and went over to the land ahead that wasn't occupied by the house's land. He looked back over his shoulder to see his house getting farther away from him as the bright lights and the constant chattering inside showed the warmth inside the house that fought and rivaled with the cold winds outside.<p>

Said Pokémon Trainer skidded a bit more over the lush grass, his feet making silent noises in the cold wind rushing against his tense body. Nothing like the mountains, this was just a soft and chilly breeze in the air whereas that was literally a hazardous and harsh snowstorm with excruciatingly frigid winds blowing about. And when he found a comfortable and warm soft smothered among the blowing grass and leaves; he settled down and sat on his behind, one of his legs spread apart while the other one was bent and held one of his arms that was bent as well; his other arm falling back down on the leafy surface. His back was crouched a bit and he face was lifted upwards, looking about in the wonder above. His hair swayed along with the winds as it tickled his face a bit, spread out in all directions from the roots implanted on his head; not considered formal at all but very attractive to most women.

"Wonders all over the warm, bright sky that shoot the vehicle of life energy and majestic display, bursting out through the lit up blanket like the passionate flame that burns within every living being on the face of the earth in which we walk in; of course, I myself am an exception to this world-wide contraction we have come to know for and indulge in. In fact, as the only probable lonely person in the world, I have to contradict with this theory yet somehow, I still believe in it…" The young boy finished his little speech around the emptiness of the air.

Too bad no one had learned to hear of it, since most families were inside their respective houses, shielding themselves from the cold seasonal temperature outside while smothering in the warm and relaxing atmosphere inside of the house and making long chats with their respective relatives or families. As for his mother and senior acquaintance, they were inside the house striking up a conversation as well, heard by the young trainer outside from the ringing voices going across the room and through the walls and windows; but, he couldn't hear exactly what they were chattering over, probably something light and not serious to be taken but enjoying to discuss over. Many Pokémon trainers that started their very own Pokémon journey right here on this exact town have returned to their hometown for a while to celebrate this joyous and annual Christmas occasion and event with their childhood friends, families and loved ones before going back to venturing on the road to the never-ending journey of life. And since when exactly had he learned to talk so maturely and professionally, like a scientist, psychiatrist and philosopher? Did he even study psychology and philosophy? Not exactly… it was just a probable and genuine trait he had picked up somehow over the years in isolation in which he had matured greatly from and grown up from his childish personality and behavior.

His eyes were still wandering over the night sky, taking in the mystical view from down here that just made it that much more brilliant to look at. But all of a sudden, something had caught his eye that nearly managed to cause him to widen his eyes from shock.

The sky was highlighted and covered in a dark velvety-black hue shade that stretched out endlessly over the earth; comparatively a bit darker than in the Hoenn region even though the time difference made Hoenn a bit farther ahead than Kanto. Regardless of that, the starts still glittered upon the sky, brightening it and dancing about in the vast and wide blanket while the moon produced that lustrous and eerie glowing aura as it sent off a bright and thin white light; shunning over the grass fields and meadows of flowers. But the thing that was the most noticeable and what had caused the boy's sudden change in mind was a white streak of shimmering light flowing across the sky in a exquisite view, leaving a trail of sparkles as it left, flowing mystically as it did so. Now this was an interlinked miracle between two places and two special people, wasn't it?

Disregarding and ignoring other weird thoughts flashing above in his mind, mostly about 'connection', he closed his eyes and inhaled the aromatic and intoxicating scent of the wide variety of flowers nearby from where he sat. Still noticing the presence of the mysterious falling star, his mind was arranged with words that he didn't even have control of or yet alone, make them. It was all his heart's doing in where it took control of his mind and body; people who encountered him claiming him heartless and impassive, let's just leave it that it was the power of his senses that controlled his words and actions.

He took another deep breath, in the form of a heaving sigh, before letting out what he had planned for in his mind. "I understand I cannot fathom in this world forever in time…but it would be nice to see everyone, especially_ her_,once again… before I fade away into the murky depths of this world…for good and never return…" The way he spoke it at first seemed to be a bit scary and spooky, trying to predict a future while giving off a request in the form of a wish; but if one were to look closer and dive into his words more, he may just be hiding something inside there… "Please, one more chance to see her and spend some more time with her for a little bit more longer; that I do wish…" He whispered ever so lightly; his calm and soft words blowing off with the breeze outside. The falling meteorite seemed to have heard of his request, as it made a slight clang noise as it went be slowly, allowing the boy to take his time but making sure the noise wasn't audible enough for the boy to listen through; since that would ruin the entire moment.

His senses tingling again, he opened his eyes at the right moment to look at another wonder floating above in the sky. Constellated by the stars joining together, it formed a picture he thought he would never see again, yet alone experience this miracle…

A warm and cheery smile flashed above the night with a beautiful, loving and innocent face shown in the hollow air; long hair falling down from her head and eyes that sparkled and glimmered along with the many stars dancing about above in the sky. At first, the boy himself was having some trouble with identification, seeing as though this was someone he had never met before in his life. But, once he came to his senses and relied on them to lead the way to the path and revelation, the shroud of mystery that was enveloped in his mind had faded away. He gave a light-hearted and small smile as he saw who was above in the sky, floating with that broad smile and cute face. It was _her_… Simultaneous coincidence that happened at the same time to two special people living quite far away from each other in their regions? I think not… It was fate… But, something just seemed to be off about her picture according to the boy's opinion. Just somehow, it wasn't like her from when the last time he had met her. She seemed to have a…sad and gloomy aura surround her pretty face, even though she was brightening the sky with that big smile and sparkling eyes; but to him, her eyes just didn't seem to hold that same intriguing and curious spark, but rather a somber and sorrow atmosphere. But, nothing can be perfect, right? At least the twinkling stars managed to display and present this amazing picture of a young and sweet girl.

"So she's grown her hair long as well? And I thought mine was long enough to rival a girl's hair, but at least long for a boy I guess…" Staggering with the talk he had done for years, the stars above just seemed to light his eyes as well after staring at the constellation, the glimmering brightness reflected upon his dull orbs. "Well, guess I gotta admit she definitely has gotten prettier…" He mumbled something under his breath that he thought he would never admit audibly, well, not in his mind at least. "Yeah, hope you could at least know that I am, in fact, a stupid little boy like you said…" Showing no shame in admitting his own flaws or in his case, intelligence, his eyes somehow started to sparkle, but then again, it could all be the star's doings, as he looked at the picture again in awe and delight, that light smile now turning into a faint grin. Being remarked by tons of people as one of the most intelligent people in the world, he never did think too highly of himself, or well enough to get cocky and arrogant and ruin everything. In fact, he considered himself quite stupid for many reasons; one to being over his disappearance and leaving everyone behind; but, he did have his strong supports on that reason, and not only because of heart-break. "Well, she's becoming more and more like me, even though we've been apart from each other for years; kinda proud of her…?" He wondered off into his own minds as he started blabbering words he wasn't even sure he even thought about. But some unknown source just supplied him with these choice of words to splutter out unknowingly, but willingly to the trainer's account… "Ehh, now I don't even know what I'm saying… Happens often actually…" He stated as he saw the shooting star fade away into the horizon and the lovely constellation slowly being detached as the happy stars looked like they were stretching and fading away from their counterparts. "I should really be going back now…" He whispered as he used his strong arms to lift his torso upwards followed by his legs stretching and lifting upwards, using the weight from his legs to cause his body to shift and finally be able to stand up on his feet. 'Great, I left the picture all alone there… Well hopefully Pikachu's doing a good job guarding it while deep in slumber…'

He took one last look at the night, glowing sky, the lush green meadow full of flowers and the distance in the horizon that just seemed to stretch out endlessly. He had managed to admire the beauty of nature recently over the years of harsh training in the mountains; comparing the serenity and grace back in Pallet Town to the roughness and harsh weather of where he had trained. But, he managed to fit in to it and get adapted to the vicious power of nature there. And as he took the last look, he closed his eyes and let his mind wander off again for a moment.

"Beautiful night, I don't think I'll be ever seeing one like this again anytime soon…" He trailed off to indulge in his own thoughts and let whatever he had in his mind come out through his mouth. "But that is my only last request that I do beg from this world… May not be seeing anyone else, but just spending one last moment with her would, maybe, fill my life again…" He whispered out again as he gently opened his eyes with a soft wake and looked at the marvelous sight and image fading away and mixing back in the sky before him, the joyous stars signaling him that it was time to end their little performance and magnificent display and return to their own places in this night sky and the entire galaxy. "I'll be waiting for you May; forever, and a day…" Whispering slightly yet again to the outside void of the world, he turned his back towards the sky and started walking away and back into the warm comfort of his modernized house, a big grin plastered on his face as he did so, knowing that the wonderful stars have definitely heard of his request, to heart…

* * *

><p>"Hurry up!" A commanding and fierce voice shouted and ordered whoever was foolish enough to fall in this situation. Feminism was assured, but the grace and kindness just wasn't here for this moment… 'Stupid little brother, never grew up…! Can't believe we had to go back all the way!' The now angry female complained in her head as steam was boiling off from her face, alerting the people around her forthwith.<p>

'I can't believe I forgot!' The poor person caught in the predicament complained about his own ludicrous actions as he quickly jumped off a red car parked and filled with many people and rushed for the huge house in front, keys clicking and jingling as he went on. Quickly opening the shuttering door and slamming it hard against the wall, he rushed up the stairs and into the dark hallway while withdrawing the keys in his pockets.

After wandering about in the dark for a bit, he opened a specific door and walked into a pink-painted room. Quickly dashing over to a tossed away yellow fanny pack, abandoned on top of a side-table, he began to search desperately for something. Junk, junk and more junk… Sighing as his hands kept wandering, he only wondered on about how his sister had so much junk filled in this. After a while, he finally managed to find the thing he was looking for; a bunch of shrunken Pokéballs. Wasting no time in grabbing a bunch of them in his hand and placing them over to the bed beside the side-table, he zipped the yellow pack all up and left it on top of the table again. Before running back out to the porch, he grabbed the red and white spheres and dumped them in his pant pockets.

Light switched weren't necessary to be turned on, since the moonlight from outside came through as a bright source. Admiring the view outside for a bit, he quickly rushed back, closing the door loudly as he went. And in such a hurry, he bumped his head a few times with the rough surface of the walls on the dark hallway, no windows intact for available light.

In a few seconds, he came rushing back out of the porch and dove straight into the car after opening the doors to it. But even though he did his given deed by his furious sister, he was still surprised to see her staring straight at him with a point of annoyance enthralling.

"You forgot to close the main door, nit-wick!" She yelled as she peered over the sides from the blocked view, finding her brother's short-term memory as quite annoying.

"Crap…!" He yelled as he ran back over to the porch, again, and slammed the main door shut, bringing out the keys from his pocket. He fidgeted with it a bit when it was intact with the lock before finally getting it right and locking the door successfully. Checking a bit around the house for things he may have forgotten to do if he were to fall in the grasps of his older sister, he sighed in relief as nothing seemed out of order. With a proud grin, he rushed back into the car, seeing the older girl with a very impatient look. Well, pretty much everyone was about as good as restive; but, there were a few who managed to suppress it.

"Finally! Let's go now…!" She said after toning her voice down a bit, seeing as everyone had soften their expression of distaste. A click was heard as the front driver, a bulky man with short blue hair, started to gear up the engines and start the car. It soon started vibrating and in a second, they were moving slowly before it got a chance to speed up significantly, perhaps crossing the speed-limit even. Back on the road to catch the ferry, they were desperately praying they would not be late by now, for the group of youngsters would risk getting left behind and give up a life opportunity…

* * *

><p>"So basically, you don't take registrations anymore, I still have time to register tomorrow and I'll have to get up early and reach there by at least 9 PM if I still wanna have a chance in this competition?" A young boy asked an older man as he saw the look on his face, telling him all he needed to know… News flash delivered successfully. 'Wow, the Pokémon League must be really unorganized then; changing their schedules every so often for a benefit and good time structure…' Thinking it out thoroughly in his head and having thoughts that may interrupt with one more thing he had to do before the start of the competition, he was trying his best to bring out a suitable schedule; for that task was no easy matter itself.<p>

"Correct, and you better arrive on time; the league officials expect a lot from you boy…" The man with the yellow lab coat said with such pride, causing the woman opposite to him on the couch to sweat drop… It's not like you're the father anyways… Well, fatherly figure would be more suited…

"Yeah yeah… Let them…" The boy with the unorganized, messy black hair said, wanting to show no interest in other people's entertainment or purposes. He had other affairs to tend to and he wasn't here to impress other people, let alone make the world know of his existence. "Well, I'm afraid I'm completely booked for the night as I still have one more little thing to do…" Replying to the man as he grabbed the sound asleep yellow mouse by his hands and moved him over to place him on top of his lap, a regular and more comfortable position.

"And that would be…?" The woman asked inquisitively, wanting to know if he's been doing something secretly or if something's caught up with him. Influenced by other people? Nah, he doesn't look at the world that way anymore… Doesn't care about other people's business, yet sometimes his own also… Discarding them in the trash can and simply avoiding anything linked to it…

"I'll explain later…" He said in a slightly annoyed voice, not wanting to let them know. But, he needed information and asking from the wise professor himself seemed like the only way around. Seeing the mother nod his head in response and shut off the suspicious look while the older man eye him curiously for a bit, particularly his hair, he let himself relax, for he wouldn't have much time to sit back during the summit tournament and he had to fulfill one last thing task before heading off. And hopefully, he wouldn't be later; for if he was, all this planning would be as good as done. And presumably according to his situation, he WOULD manage to cut off enough time and reach there by time, grand entrance included…

"Oh, and regarding the history you had with Pokémon over the years, I'm happy to inform you that you won't be needing to carry a bunch of them in a small device, known as the PokéTransfer; the league committees say that trainers and coordinators would probably be bringing a bunch of Pokémon with them and devices like those are only so rare…" The grey-haired man announced and informed the recent news he somehow got… Sources so far are unknown… Probably the official authorities of the Pokémon League.

"Really? Guess I wouldn't be needing this then…" Saying out aloud in response as he dug one of his hands in the pocket stitched on his jeans, he looked around for a while with his hands before he brought something out; a white rectangular device with a blue line going across in the middle. Also, a small opening to put a shrunk Pokéball inside and a small monitor as well to handle and arrange all of the Pokémon inside with the given controls below the screen. He brought it up close to his face and observed its feature for a bit, making sure none of his Pokémon were jammed and adhered inside the contraption. After looking at his little 'exhibition', he tossed it away on purpose to the free sofa seat beside him, not really caring where it landed at all.

"Ummm… Convenience, dear?" The woman asked light-heartedly as she saw the strange behavior of her son, throwing away something that he had spent so much money to buy for and not caring if it broke or not. Well, it was his property so she really didn't bother getting involved in it. Still, she found this action a bit absurd; but, the boy has changed completely within the years of time, including his personality, behavior, attitude and all that stuff.

"Convenience is the selfish purpose of humans. Pokémon deserve to be free, not constricted and limited to movements within these devices. But, Pokéball's are something we just cannot avoid..." He stated rather professionally as he took a look at the man, gesturing him to take the fallen and ignored item with just a look in the eye. Well, that clarified his mother's queries as she kept her mouth shut after hearing of what he had to say in response…

The man gave the boy a questioning look before getting it, doing as gestured by moving forward and standing up using the sofa's hands for support to move over and grab the item that was right beside the boy. He put it somewhere in his pocket and dusted off whatever tiny spectacles there were in his yellow coat. He moved back a bit and sat down quite politely instead of just slouching down, something a specific someone hasn't learn to do. No, it was not the hypothetical boy in front, nor was it the cheery woman.

"You know, what you just gave a short speech about reminds me of something interesting that happened a few years ago. There was this group of thugs who ranted on about 'Pokémon Liberation' on all over the Unova region. But, this mysterious kid shows up and wipes them away. Do you happen to know about this story?" He asked rather suspiciously, causing the boy to look away in another direction as his hands moved down to stroke Pikachu's yellow and soft fur. Answers were needed to clear away his suspicions, and he had a pretty strong one about the boy.

"Nope, not at all… But, I do know the story of those shady people, Team Plasma; and I think they just had the right idea and belief, but wrong morals…" The boy replied in a calm and monotonous manner, not wanting to get interested in that particular subject at all, but showing he did in fact know a bit about it. His eyes finally landed on the window and he could see how much time he spent while he was outside gawking at the night view. Deducing a time, it was probably around 9 to 10 PM, seeing as though how long the three of them have talked for and explained the boy's current story and situation ever since the man arrived here in a hurry. Thinking of a good way to change the subject, he flashed a very faint smirk that was quite invisible to both the old man and the cheery woman, relieved from pressure by farther inquiries by the two of them while feeling the comfort in his own house. "Whew, I guess I'm not adapted to this kind of warm weather…" He said as he moved his hands up momentarily, letting go off the mouse's relaxation source in the process of it, and unzipped the hidden zipper stuck on the vest, opening it slightly so both sides were separated and from his body and pulled apart, showing his black sweatshirt from the front side view while the white collars just sagged downwards. After that was done, his hands moved back and was placed on top of the mouse this time, showing no actions as the look on the rodent's face revealed that it was quite content already with the warm temperature inside the house, or so for him and his trainer only; the other two had to put on extra layers to try and stay warm inside. However, his master only had the vest on because it matched with his clothes and came with the set of attire itself, he technically didn't need it in this type of weather; but, up where they were training for years in the harsh weather, it was a whole different story…

"Ummm… honey, aren't you feeling cold at all?" Everyone turned their eyes to the puzzled woman, her confused look written all over her face at the action commenced by her son. 'Is he even human anymore?' She started to worry in her head as strange and uncomforting thoughts ran up in her mind, the cause of her anxiety. Her chestnut hair went halfway down her back until it was wrapped with a light and thin blue hair band. Worn over the top of her yellow half-sleeved undershirt, was a pink blouse that was half-sleeved as well, the third red button left open to reveal the only visible part of the yellow undershirt that wasn't covered by the pink blouse. Lavender skirt that went down till her knees, barely passing them and revealing her fair skin tone in the remainder of her legs that were revealed. And, her foot was enveloped in a light pale yellow shoe, matched significantly with the yellow undershirt she also wore; her usual warm and caring auburn eyes now gave off an anxious and pondering state.

"Nope, not at all…" He said as he moved his arms again and straightened up his posture for a bit to allow his hands to be seated on top of the couch's pillow, and then fell back again in a loosened up position again, his head rested on the top of his palms. He could notice that the mouse had fallen asleep; the mother was getting even more worried about his weird behavior and the man observing the scene before him. And after taking everything into notice, he just closed his eyelids gently while opening up his mouth. "If you went over to where I've been for the past few years, you'll know the real definition of 'cold' and 'bad weather'". He explained to the party, opening one eyes slightly and undetectably to catch that his mother had eased up a bit from the tension and the man was gaining even more curious to the topic. "Something wrong Professor Oak?" He closed that eye again and asked the ever-so, world famous Professor Samuel Oak, someone he was well acquaintance with and in the past, he always looked up to him as a role-model or fatherly figure since the terrible incident that occurred to his whole family, including his real father.

"Well, first things first…" The man in the lab coat said as he began to draw out words from his mouth. Curiosity would come later, let go off the insignificant queries that should come first before they are forgotten. "Didn't you always love wearing hats back in the ol' days? Or did you adapt to a new personality that makes you feel unnecessary to go on with equipping a hat?" He asked the irrelevant question that's been bugging his mind ever since he came here, taking note of it immediately after he figured out the true identity of the mysterious boy laying back in the couch.

The boy in red immediately opened both eyes while feeling the thickness of his jet-black hair as he silently and unnoticeably rubbed it with the palms he had rested his head on. He looked up to see the plain white ceiling up above, the walls of the room already being painted in a pale green shade. "You see… I kinda lost my hat after it flew off while riding my Charizard. There was kinda a massive accident in the air that almost resulted in all of us snapping our earthly ties and letting our spirits fly away from our bodies." He explained in a hypothetical and complicated manner as he closed his eyes again and sighed lightly. And unknowingly, the yellow mouse had twitched silently as he rubbed the red sacs on his cheek with his lightning bolt resembled tail at the mention of the recent incident.

"WHAT? You haven't told me anything about that! Are you ok? You're not hurt are you? Should I call for a doctor?" The mother sprang up from her seat immediately as she went over to inspect and examine the boy with her sharp and keen eyes, searching for any signs of fatal injuries. Both the man and the boy was taken aback by that sudden action, the boy jolting awake and leaping slightly to the side. However, the electric mouse seemed completely unfazed by the abrupt rush of the trainer when he had jumped slightly on top of the couch, relaxing in his own dream world.

* * *

><p><em>However for a second in his dream world, the mouse thought he could see a very faint, but glimmering light and a slight and weak cry uttered out, as if asking for help. And in the distance was a blur, the color not being noticeable due to the distance between the two seeming so apart from each other when they weren't even that far away. And you know what? The same thing happened to the trainer… He heard a very light and frail cry out to him in his head, as if asking him for help or something like that. The voice seemed so weak that something definitely bad must have happened to it for it to ring in its voice on both the trainer's head and appear on the mouse's dream.<em>

_And in dreamland, the mouse was just as confused as the trainer is currently in reality. The yellow rodent could identify his surroundings with a little trouble, seeing as though the whole place was filled with a bunch of white fluffs that were coming from the bottom, the sides and from above; practically, the white, soft and fluffy clouds came from everywhere in every direction. The place just seemed endless because the horizon was only covered in a thick fog that enshrouded most of the distant areas of 'dreamland', being as though where the lonely blur of a figure was hiding. The place seemed to have a yellowish background tint to it and was filled with all sorts of stuff that were hard for him (and me :p) to explain and make sure it was depictured properly by the readers. It had a sort of relaxing and comforting vibe to it that the mouse could only wonder in his head as to why he was transported here all of a sudden. He looked out to see that the figure on the other side was still there, crying out weakly for it to come closer. Suspecting a trap at first, but quickly getting over the idea since this was his own dream and he could do whatever he wanted or change in anytime; he waddled over in a bipedal stance with his chubby little feet to reach the figure. The figure still wasn't identifiable, barely being able to see the color of it since it was just a blur in the distance. But for some peculiar reason, the closer the mouse was trying to get to the distant figure, the farther it seemed to fade away into the horizon of the cloudy and hazy overcasts. And quickly thinking up on a brilliant idea, he placed both his feet downwards from the bipedal position and dashed up quickly with both his paws and feet in an attempt to catch up with the figure. And as the mouse was dashing incredibly, it disappeared into a yellow blur itself to reappear a few feet away from the place of its last disappearance. It was using the known move Agility in order for it to try and catch up with the other fading blur in the farther distance as it was blending in the thick fog and into the horizon._

_"Pikachu…" The voice of the lonely figure echoed within the earshot range of the mouse's sensitive ears. It just seemed so fragile and helpless to the frustrated mouse's ear that he couldn't help but loosen up and gain more speed on his Agility attack while wondering, what the heck was happening and who was that? He was starting to doubt if this really was some dream, or some dream that wasn't in his current control; for the reason, it just didn't seem under his power at all for the happening situation. I mean, why would he start dreaming about weird stuff like this? Emphasis on the given word 'weird' is needed, not to forget in addition to 'awkward' and 'strange'. But, he could know for sure that he was in fact dreaming, having no other possible way of being transported to such a place with the exception of passing through the gates of the afterlife and entering the heaven-filled world, which may as well be a strong possibility for recent occurrence. But sticking to 'dream' would be a much more relievable and comforting likely situation for now. Will someone explain this incoherent theory that is affecting the law of psychology by disrupting and diffusing it, completely messing its unique and equivalent balance?_

_The mouse had started to gain more speed on its run and pick up the Agility attack as it kept on disappearing and appearing into yellow flashes quite so often in the blink of an eye. It was a race, a race to determine if the yellow mouse proved up to the challenge with his speed. But it only seemed like a race to him, he needed some answers. His big, black beady eyes could see that the figure in the distant was so close to disappearing from his dream with only so much as to only uttering a single word and silent cries that rang through his head. And when he was a few steps away from it, he made a massive leap on top of the cloudy surface, which somehow managed to give him a jump boost instead of letting his little chubby feet be sunk in to the fluffiness, and sprang upwards with a little support from his lightning bolt tail. In midair, he spun and rolled a few times, showing his acrobatics skills to particular no one except a blur, which wasn't exactly amused with the little 'performance'. And as the rodent closed his eyes while preparing to hit the mysterious creature, which he had already assumed was solid as a rock and the softness of the overcasts would help him with his head damage that he may have gone on to receive. Maybe the little show-boating was a bit enough already? Pretty sure as to what he was trying to think of, he knew that the decision had already been made and the action must continue. Maybe he could try and divert it by turning a bit? Nah, who knows for he may fall of the clouds and into somewhere where he had no idea of, choosing to not take the risk of never seeing this little 'dream world' again._

_His head tucked in, his hands and legs drooping over and his tail retracted back to his body, he closed his eyes and prepared for waiting impact. Although, before closing his eyes, he could see that whoever that blur was had stopped dead right in their tracks and looked in awe at the mouse approaching it. He could have taken a bit more note of the mysterious object's appearance or characteristics when his eyes were opened, but it was too late I guess._

_The biggest shock hit him right in the face, not literally. He was completely surprised to feel that he didn't feel any solid mass or surface pound against his body when the speed of his body and attack, combined with the momentum of his charge should have resulted him in getting his brains popped out or head damaged severely. And even if the other end had a light mass, just like the rodent, the speed of the rushing march should have been enough to cover up for that small property. Getting up on his feet after feeling his head crash with the bounciness of the fluffs, he dusted his little body and knees off of any possible remaining dirt and shook his head off before gathering information of his bearings and whereabouts. And the moment he opened his eyes again after falling down on the smooth surface, he could feel a sort of eerie and queer aura surround his chubby yellow body. And in reaction to quick and sudden shock, the rodent jumped a few feet back forthwith and on top of another cloudy particle below those scampering feet. Looking about of his body and to the ghostly figure ahead, that was enough to cause him to jump back a few feet again promptly in another fit of utter surprise. And that was the last time he would be taken off his guard like that, he decided to act brave and face the figure straight in the eyes, obviously expecting that he couldn't see its eyes yet… But regardless, this time he was able to take a much better picture of the mysterious item, or creature…_

_It was tinted in a light shade of grey, but the actual color was probably hidden due to its ghostly form. Yes, it had a very phantom and supernatural look to its appearance, blatantly given away by its floating form and oozing, shadowy legs that looked like shredded cloth. But Pikachu, the mouse, couldn't recognize it as some type of Ghost or Dark Pokémon. And that's all the detail that could be captured and processed into his brain, for it was not sufficient enough for even an attempt to guess or deduce any irrelevant or weird suspects that may come into his mind for an identification._

_Now, he thought he was just going mad and definitely beyond crazy. His mind just seemed so messed up at the moment from all these weird objects or items his eyes were picking up on and his sub-consciousness must have been damaged badly by some sort of psychotic or crazy mental problem. Maybe he was just hallucinating visions in his head that ended up being transferred into his dreams through his sub-consciousness? When can he just wake up so he can confide to everything weird that had happened to him in his dream to his loving, caring and kind trainer; loving, caring and kind for him anyways..._

_"Pikachu..." The voice rang through the ears of Pikachu again, turning it's very strange, but nice body... so the backside of it was facing the mouse. And, it had a very beautiful figure, even though it the whole figure couldn't be seen... Wait, where are these strange thoughts coming from? Probably from Pikachu's point of view...? Ok, the mouse had managed to take note that the shredded feet-thingy was in fact not he real feet, but a ghostly blanket covered over the figure, giving it off the supernatural aura, grey in lack of color and weird figure shape. Nonetheless, a little of the figure could be seen from outside the cloth, but still no prevailing hints over the lack of exposure for a clarification. The voice sounded somehow familiar, but the mouse just couldn't trace the identity of who it belonged to; but he was more than sure that he had heard that very familiar voice somewhere in his life, probably sometime in the past…_

_"Pika chupi!" The mouse had finally said his first words after entering his little 'dreamworld' and being lost in thought of confusion and puzzlement for so long. Well, by the looks of it, the creature didn't seem to be of the mouse's local species, Pikachu's. But anyways, Pokemon could communicate with each other through their 'native tongue', regardless of the species that started up the conversation according to the big **Pokemon Encyclopedia** or other useless junk like that... Anyways, another bold and daring attempt by the little mouse was that it actually tried to jump on top of the figure again. But before he could actually hit his target spot-on this time..._

_The creature was seen with a light smile, noticeable by the mouse going for impact, and after that, it just vanished into thin air, and probably from his current dream for now... Pikachu had failed miserably to hit down his target, and this time he didn't even remember hitting the fluffy, cloudy surface for there was darkness that enveloped his vision, causing his eyes to fade away from everything in sight, and suddenly feeling his body go lighter..._

* * *

><p>He jolted awake from his little 'dream' to see two faces of concern and one of bewilderment staring at him with wide eyes, well except the one out of the crowd. He immediately sprang his head up and took note of his surroundings, seeing as though he wasn't in some sort of another crazy dream. And at the mention of the word, his mind started to go through immense confusion as everything that had happened in his sub-consciousness for the last few minutes were brought back up.<p>

"Pikachu? What's wrong?" The out-of-the-crowd person asked as the person held the mouse tightly around his stomach with his hands. Looking down, the rodent could notice he was in a grip, and by someone he knew all to well of.

"Honey, I think he just had some sort of nightmare..." Both of them turned their faces to see the woman having worry and concern all over her eyes as she stated her belief to the two of them. Also again, the mouse knew of the woman very well too.

"That may be... But there may be something deeper to that..." Pikachu turned his head again to see an older man with a yellow lab coat and white t-shirt, staring at him. But they weren't eyes of concern or worry anymore like the mother, they were now full of suspicion and questions...

The boy in black hair picked up the mouse, still in the affectionate bind, close to his mouth and began whispering in the ear, making sure no one heard. And he was more than smart to know that they could see visually from their eyes. So of course, he had a counter-plan; he was holding the mouse in such an angle and position close to his face that it looked like they were rubbing their cheeks together as a sign of affection while they actually were giving off private information exchange between each other."Alright buddy, we'll talk about this later... I have a few suspicions as well..." He whispered lightly, seeing the mouse nod positively in reply before being put back down on his lap to rest comfortably. But after that experience, the mouse had made sure to stay awake and not take the chance of drifting off into another crazy dream before having a little private discussion regarding all of this with his trainer later on.

"Don't worry Professor Oak; Pikachu was probably having some sort of terrible nightmare. But it's nothing to be concerned about." The boy lied straight through teeth as he looked below and saw the mouse nod positively again to the crowd in order to conceal everything and give them fake 'bait'.

"Well, if you say so…" The man in the suit replied hastily as he moved his hands below and dug for something into one of the back pockets of his lab coat. 'It must be here somewhere…" He thought to himself as he was gripping every pocket with his hands in the back. The woman and boy could notice his sudden desperate search as he was now starting to get worried. Maybe he dropped it somewhere while reaching over to this house? Regardless, his hands shifted from the back pockets to the ones in the front of his yellow coat.

"Ummm… What are you doing professor?" The woman asked, clueless as she saw with both her glinting eyes, a frantic situation.

"I may have something you like… Red…" The man said as he shifted his head up and looked at the boy sternly before facing back down and moving his hands inside of his yellow overall attire.

"Seriously? Red, in the privacy of my own house with almost no one around?" The boy asked rhetorically as he heaved a huge sigh of disappointment and a tad bit of shame. Ah, he just let it go for now and see what 'surprise' he may get.

The woman had picked up this and laughed a bit in her inner-self, leaving the old man to bring out whatever he had inside of his lab coat. "You know, you do really have to be a bit more careful… 9th time already?" She asked in a scolding manner as she saw the look on the boy's face, a light smile and small frown both visible at the same times somehow magically.

"10th time actually… And yes, it just happens so naturally that I can't have time to re-think about it. But, thankfully I could think fast enough to avoid all the hazards and leave the place alive." He explained while petting and cuddling the mouse again, hearing a light coo from him.

"I mean, who even caused the whole accident to occur?" She asked as she got a stern and serious look on her face that had learned to intimidate most people, but the trainer in red was unaffected by it, not even flinching or quailing back in the slightest.

Preparing to be rubbed hard in the face by his trainer and earn an earful of scolding from his second 'mother', Pikachu bowed his head down in shame with a very guilty look on his face; his head hung low, his eyes not visible for they were hidden in the shadow of his face and his ears drooped downwards as they fell down cutely. He took a deep breath and prepared for the shunting he so rightfully deserved for his carelessness.

"It was me…" The boy said as he hung his head low as well and could see the mouse's round face. At that word, the mother's eyes grew wide and the mouse was almost about to jump, for it not that the boy's hands stopped it from doing so, completely surprised by, possibly, biggest lie. He really hadn't expecting this and he could only wonder why the boy was going to take the blame, along with the scolding for himself. Pikachu looked upwards to see the boy's face and read his expression, but only a plain and dull one could be seen with no explanation or answers at all. "I was the one who caused the accident; I was looking for something in my backpack when I accidently put pressure on Torterra's Pokéball, causing Torterra itself to come out and thus, result in our accident." He continued with his 'confession', or fake confession in fact as he gave off a light wink that was surely received to the mouse without the third party seeing of it. The mouse only stared at him with more puzzlement and tilted his head confusedly, not getting onto this part of the act he hadn't even been informed about on advance before.

"Well young man, you definitely need to be less clumsy and more careful! Do you even know what would happen if you weren't able to think up fast enough for a diversion and counter-plan, if Charizard couldn't handle the load all at once and tumble downwards forthwith without having the capable energy to release a Flamethrower and boost up the flying or even if Torterra couldn't have enough time and energy to perform that Frenzy Plant attack? I'll tell you what; yo-" Interrupted again and prevented from talking by the sound of a cheery mood in action, she gritted her teeth hard and turned to see the man again, having an item hidden behind his back that was concealed by the shadows and the man's large and chubby figure.

"Ah, found it!" He exclaimed as he brought both of his hands out and revealed the so called item that was behind his back for all this time. The mother looked at with a knowing smirk, seeing the priceless reaction of her son, completely left speechless… It wasn't like his mouth was left agape or his eyes were wide open, in fact, he still had his normal look, eyes half-closed; but the thing that took it all was how he turned stiff immediately upon seeing that, not moving so much as a muscle; and it was still something pretty hilarious and big for someone of his stature. Oh, if only there was a camera here…

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><p><strong>Well how was it? Good, bad, crap? I'll probably go for crap, but it's really all your opinions that matter. First of all, thanks to EVERYONE who reviewed this story, even to those who took the time to read it :) I honestly didn't think I'd get this much reviews so quickly :p Now, I seriously need all your help, suggestions and opinions on this. I need help with the clothes of Dawn, Drew and Misty... Please take the time to leave a suggestion if you can...<strong>

**Oh yea...****Ummm… I changed Professor Oak's clothes slightly to make it coincide with the future events in this fic. Yes, I referenced one line in this chapter from a story which I personally thought was completely awesome with then many twists and turns… Try to guess it, heheheh…**

**Yea, I know I still haven't reached the main plot and I'm still writing a lot by 'stalling'. But, Chapter 5 will be the last chapter of stalling as afterwards, the main plot will begin to shape and develop, creating many sub-plots. But, the next chapter won't be for complete waste as there will still be a developing sub-plot from it...**

**Now, I would like to specially thank my friend Anthony who's been trying to talk me out of suicide... No fools, not really suicide! Suicide is considered stupid! As I was saying, ...talk me out of disappearance from this site as I feel like I've lost my flow and mood... But for now, I can only reconsider. So, go check out his awesome story! :p Also, happy-late-birthday to Spottedflame again! :) yea, this chapter is super long...**

**Well, next chapter will be up later on, probably sometime around mid-January, since I've heard my exams are somewhere around that time... But after giving that, I'll be completely free again :)**

**Complicated theory: Why does it seem so far away of distance, when it's actually much closer than your next step?**

**So, is everyone enjoying their holidays? Presents from Christmas? Mind sharing some with me? Well, happy-soon-to-be-new year to everyone! :p 2011 sure did go by fast... Anyways****, please leave a review and don't forget to give my needy suggestions... And...**

**Drink syrup! ^^**


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